A new parcel of land purchased by the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) might someday see the long-awaited aquatic centre come to fruition.
The CRD recently purchased the 13.5-acre property adjacent to the South Cariboo Recreation Centre from Bridge Creek Estate for $70,000.
CRD chair Al Richmond says the regional district has not designated a firm project for the new property, but directors felt it was a good acquisition to be strategically prepared for future recreation needs of its residents.
“It was affordable, we had money in reserves to do that and we did negotiate on the price.”
The purchase was a key piece to enable potential development options that include an aquatic centre, a new Agriplex building, and expanded ball fields, equestrian grounds, bike park, trail systems and parking, he adds.
“Our parking is stretched to the limit now. It also brought all the trails around the marsh onto land owned by local government.”
Richmond notes it also adjoins the Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School property.
South Cariboo Aquatic Society (SCAS) chair Kathy Reid says that, after working with the CRD and the District of 100 Mile House for seven years, this is a positive move toward seeing a public pool in the community.
While an aquatic centre would need to be located closer to the South Cariboo Rec. Centre, the new parcel allows flexibility for other facilities to be relocated, she explains.
“Without having further land, there wasn’t really a place for us to go. You can’t get rid of one facility to facilitate something else and … by no means did we want anybody to lose what they already had.”
Richmond explains the CRD needs to have to have some logical way of expanding the site to accommodate future recreation facilities, and confirms some existing ones would then need to be moved around.
“We know the Agriplex was a temporary thing, so where could it be located? Now we have [land] connectivity. So, it’s trying to plan for the future, it does not necessarily mean something’s going to happen tomorrow.”
The designs for all four options in the CRD’s South Cariboo Recreation Site Plan, developed in 2012, have a pool situated on the current Stan Halcro Arena (Agriplex) site.
Richmond says “the next step” is to determine if the pool project should move forward toward a referendum, which remains “a ways off” from happening.
However, costs have changed since the aquatic centre feasibility study was completed in January 2010, he notes. Now, the SCAS is setting up a committee to update the costing, and re-evaluate the project, before possibly going to an eventual public vote.
