After months of consultation, revision and debate, Mayor and council caught their first glimpse of the activity centre renovation project, which includes substantial upgrades to the building.

“This building goes a long way inspiring community wellness, for years to come,” said aquatic centre manager Christopher Read. 

The design and development stage of the Jasper Activity and Aquatic Centre renovations was approved by the Culture and Recreation board last Friday.

Due to budget constraints, the renovations have been put into two phases with the hope of more funding coming at a later date to finish Phase 2 of the development.

The major portion of Phase 1 will be the construction of a new fitness centre building, with a climbing wall, that will be attached to the current Aquatic Centre on Pyramid Avenue. New daycare facilities will also be included, which will adjoin the current daycare in the activity centre.

As the whole project was estimated at $7.5 million in October last year, it was always planned that the renovations were to unfold in phases, said Read. The project is now expected to cost $4.9 million, as it has been scaled back by about 2,000 square feet.

Due to the economic downturn, it was hoped that costs would reduce significantly and most of the project could be completed.

“We were optimistic that perhaps we might get some aggressive pricing so we had almost gone back to the full package,” said Read. 

However, an independent cost consultant estimated the total project would be $8 million, which meant the project was put before council in two separate phases with the hope of more funding at a later date.

During the culture and recreation meeting, Yvonne McNabb, director of culture and recreation, also highlighted that around $300,000 worth of renovations (that are in Phase 2) would need to be completed in the coming year.

One suggestion, put forward by Read, was that he and McNabb could investigate the possibility of borrowing money so that Phase 1 and 2 could be combined.

McNabb was quick to point out that many of the renovations in Phase 2 would actually save the municipality money as they would reduce the running costs of the facility. 

Another question raised is whether or not the new renovations should be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified. Toker and Associates, the project architect, estimated that the certification would cost about $50 thousand.

According to the architects, the building will meet all the criteria for the gold LEED certification so if the municipality decides to go ahead with the certification they will need to know in the next month or as there must be consultation prior to tender.  There are elements that could be included in the building to help obtain LEED certification, such as solar panels, however there has been no decision at this point on those elements.

Read notified council that there were several aspects of the project that have not been included in the budget that could result in cost savings down the line, however they aren’t included at this stage. Those elements include a new emergency generator, repairs to the roof of the activity centre, replacing the boiler system and upgrading the heating and insulation for the multi-purpose room, which is currently the home of the curling rink.