Aldergrove’s new community centre complex will start construction with $9.8 million in additional federal funding.
On Friday, Langley politicians gathered on the snow-covered site of the future community centre to announce both the new funding and to break ground.
The federal money from the Provincia-Territorial Infrastructure Component grant will allow the centre to be built as originally planned.
“It allows us to complete some of the features that we would have put off for a couple of years,” said Langley Township Mayor Jack Froese.
Those features include solar panels for heating the facility, rain water harvesting, additional change facilities, an expanded playground, and additional features that focus on youth recreation.
Construction, which was to have started last fall, begins Monday now that the federal funding is secured.
Froese, along with Cloverdale-Langley City MP John Aldag, Abbotsford MLA Darryl Plecas, turned ceremonial shovels of soil to break ground.
Langley-Aldergrove MP Mark Warawa was also present, and Froese mentioned Warawa’s work helping secure the federal grant.
Officially dubbed the Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre, the facility will include an ice rink, a covered outdoor pool, meeting rooms, and a variety of outdoor waterslides and wave pool facilities that will be in use during the summer.
The pool design proved controversial throughout the project, with some Aldergrove residents lobbying hard into 2016 to have a fully enclosed indoor pool.
The new centre is being built on the former site of Aldergrove Elementary on Fraser Highway.
Froese reiterated the hope that it will bring more visitors and residents to the downtown and help begin the process of revitalizing the area.
