The District 69 Recreation Commission has decided to get the regional district to start working on three top priority items now rather than wait after the October municipal elections.
The commission at its special summer meeting held July 19 at Oceanside Place voted to recommend to the Regional District of Nanaimo board to direct staff to begin the process of looking into the minimum Ravensong pool upgrade proposal to address critical user concerns, the replacement of the old track at Ballenas Secondary School to a rubberized track and field faculty, and the search for a suitable land for a future outdoor and indoor sports facility.
The decision was welcomed by Ravensong Aquatic Centre user group who has been collecting signatures calling for a short-term solution to the overcrowding conditions at the pool and also the Oceanside Track and Field Club.
“I am very, very pleased that commission has decided to get things moving as they were concerned that things would be stalled in the fall with the elections coming up,” said Ann McVey of the Ravensong Action Group. “We made some pretty significant progress. We’ve got the go ahead for the Ravensong pool upgrade in the terms of a 25 metre pool as a separate facility, upgrading the change rooms and some of the things that go with it.”
The commission agreed the recommendation defined in the Recreation Services Master Plan for District 69 to build a multiplex sports facility is not going to happen any sooner. They realized the need to address some of the pressing recreational and sporting needs of the community now.
“I thought it was a smart idea to say ‘Hey, we don’t have to do everything at once and let’s get the essentials done,'” said McVey. “We hear other people talking about doing it after the elections… February. It’s not good enough. We’ve got to get going. There’s no reason why staff can’t be working on some of the basic pricing and stuff right now.”
Jane Waite, head coach of Oceanside Track and Field Club, appeared as a delegation to the commission and touched on why an upgraded rubberized surface is a good investment, the pros and cons of a cinder track versus a rubberized track, what the minimum and maximum cost wold be and also a funding formula using recent track surfacing company quotes. The club requested the commission consider a rubberized four-lane track with two land 100 m straight away.
“It was nice to see some core movement,” said Waite. “We desperately need a track. It can’t happen fast enough. I think it’s good investment even if the sportsplex happen that theres a track, even a training track for the whole community. It will be used for sure not just the high school kids. It will be a well used facility.”
McVey said they intend to continue pushing for the recreation and sports infrastructure to be developed and are asking residents wishing to be added to a list of concerned citizens to be updated and to know what’s going on can email her at annmcvey@shaw.ca.
“These are very tough issues but they are very, very important with our community growing so rapidly right now, is to have these things developing” said McVey. “With all the people coming to the area, they would want to have these facilities. It is important to their families, to their style of life. If we don’t have them, we are going to lose out.”
The commission has also made it a priority to find land around 20 acres in size where an outdoor and indoor facility can be built. There’s not a lot of open land available in the area but Electoral Area F commissioner Reg Noseworthy said it would be prudent for the RDN to start looking now.
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