Council unanimously approved a plan to develop a multi-purpose recreational area on the high school exchange lands, Aug. 5, with the condition that the design accommodate the adjacent sports field.
That means installing elk fencing inside the property line, so the field located between the Jasper Junior/Senior High School and Jasper Elementary School maintains its usefulness as a soccer and football pitch.
The concession was made following discussions with community members and executives from Jasper Minor Sports, who raised concerns about how the placement of the proposed fence and trees might render the field useless for competitive sports.
Jasper’s sports organizations are particularly concerned, noted Coun. Gilbert Wall, because their members have read the municipality’s long range plan and know that eventually the field at Centennial Park will be closed for a season in order for it to be rebuilt.
“So they’re rightly concerned,” said Wall. “They have to have a pitch somewhere.”
But with some forethought, Wall said he thinks all of those concerns should be squashed by the municipality’s planned multi-purpose space.
“All it requires is having a visual of where the line exists, where the possible fence would be and then planting the trees and doing the grading subsequent to that,” he said.
Bruce Thompson, director of operations, assured council that when discussing the plan with Grande Yellowhead Public School Division, he will address the public’s concerns and pass along the municipality’s suggested solution.
The exchange lands, where the Jasper Junior/Senior High School currently sits, will become the property of the municipality once the school is demolished and the land is remediated.
Remediation will include the addition of top soil, sod and an irrigation system, as well as trees and an elk fence. The result will be a multi-purpose area with an open field and picnic areas.
The municipality is receiving the land in exchange for the bowling green, located on the corner of Bonhomme Street and Elm Avenue. That land is now home to the new Jasper Joint School Facility, which will house students from both Jasper Junior/Senior High School and École Desrochers. The school is set to open next month.
The land exchange occurred in 2011 after 60 per cent of voters supported it in a community-wide plebiscite.
A condition of the municipality’s agreement with the school division is that the exchange land be presented to the municipality by December 2015 in a comparable state to that of the bowling green—before it became home to the new school and before it was used as a temporary off-leash area.
It is expected that the demolition and remediation will be completed well ahead of that date.
Nicole Veerman
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