Public sessions should relieve confusion over rec centre

Y membership not needed to use facility, councillor says

Public sessions on the proposed Mainland Common recreation centre should help clear up any misinformation making the rounds, says Halifax’s deputy mayor.

"These are focus groups with the users to let them know our ideas and fill them in on our partnership with the Y," Coun. Russell Walker (Fairview) said Wednesday of the $14.5-million facility, to be built next door to the new library on Lacewood Drive.

Rumours have been surfacing in the past week that people who live in the area will have to fork over some cash before they even walk through the door, Mr. Walker said.

"But you don’t have to buy a Y membership to use the facility," he said.

Ever since the municipality dissolved a volunteer steering committee late last year after a proposal was rejected at an unruly public meeting, three area councillors have been working with city staffers on a new vision for the building, which will ultimately replace Northcliffe Centre.

"The very first thing we did was to redraw the drawings," Mr. Walker said.

They did away with the concept of a splash pool and lagoon and proposed instead a 25-metre pool with swimming lanes and a shallower pool better suited to children’s lessons and the physically challenged.

Although the project, which could start as early as next year, has lost a year in reorganization and new drawings, Mr. Walker said the delay is well worth the effort.

"We revamped the whole thing," he said. "We’ve done it right, but now we’re going out to the public to ask them."

Margaret Soley, project manager for Halifax Regional Municipality, said the meetings at Northcliffe Centre, Future Inns and Halifax West High School will offer a first chance for discussions with the public and the YMCA.

The two have similar mandates of inclusion, diversity and access, she said. "It’s our goal that this facility be as open to all, that no one is turned away."

The president and CEO of the Halifax-Dartmouth YMCA said her organization is excited about the partnership.

"It is important for the broad community to see what the municipality and the YMCA have developed together," Bette Watson-Borg said. "It’s an opportunity for the community to see what we’re envisioning and to give some feedback on what we are proposing."

Bette El-Hawary, executive director of Swim Nova Scotia, said she’s keen to give her feedback on the new blueprints for the building.

"It’s a good start, that is for sure," she said.

But Ms. El-Hawary said the facility "still doesn’t meet the community needs and what we have been asking for" and mentioned dry-land training facilities such as a weight room, gym, field house and community meeting rooms.

Swim Nova Scotia would also prefer that the municipality wait to see what happens with the city’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid. The winner - Halifax is on a shortlist of three - will be announced in late 2007.

"Part of the pool depends on what happens" with the Games bid, she said. "The requests have been ... to start on the dry-land (building) first, if they are going to do it in phases."

Ms. El-Hawary said the whole $14.5 million could be used for features other than the pools, and a 50-metre competitive pool could then be jointly funded by the three levels of government as part of the Games financing.
(apugsley@herald.ca)