Town supports M.D.’s recreation master plan

The Town of Bonnyville is supporting the M.D. on their recreation master plan.

The Town met with the M.D., Cold Lake, and Glendon to approach recreation on a more regional area on a larger scale.

“We’re all in our own silos that we need to build infrastructure and that…and the M.D. is approaching, and I think it’s refreshing, to take a look at the inventories of what we got. What are our needs? How best we can deliver within our borders?” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski.

Bonnyville has not done a master plan for recreation, although Cold Lake has done one.

The M.D. has begun work on a feasibility study for a proposed recreation park west of Bonnyville, which could lead to a more “holistic” approach, said Sobolewski.

“Bonnyville is the geographic centre, but you want to be able to deliver recreation on a holistic basis and trying to be as efficient as possible,” he said.

The M.D.’s recreation needs assessment hows that 69 per cent of respondents think an indoor aquatics facility should be the top indoor priority. Sixty-one per cent of respondents said there is a need for a new or enhanced facilities.

In the town’s recreation survey results, 54.3 percent were in favour of the pool, 19.6 percent for the Arts Centre, and 12 percent for the C2 expansion.

“You take a look at their survey, it mirrored the town’s,” said Sobolewski.

“The town’s was much more simplistic, but in terms of the results, they were mirrored. There is an emphasis and a need, we just need to take an inventory and see what we’ve got, and what we can all afford.

“We don’t have a large service area to be able to work with things, it’s refreshing that all we want to get together and make this happen on a regional basis, rather in our individual silos,” he said.