School board seeking $1.4 million from city for mega-gym
Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services
NNSL (Jul 24/98) - The Roman Catholic School Board is only days away from knowing if it will get a new gymnasium for Weledeh school attached to St. Pat's high school's existing gym.
At next Monday's council meeting, councillors will decide whether or not they will underwrite a loan for $1.4 million to help pay for the construction of the gym.
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Plenty of time available A surplus of gym time may make a mega-gym project a tough sell to council. According to the city's community services committee, there's plenty of gym time available for use by different Yellowknife organizations. The Yellowknife Education District has six gyms and one multi-purpose room available for community use. From Oct. 1 to May 31, bookings make up only 56 per cent of available time based on an average of 263 hours available per week. Yellowknife Catholic schools has four gyms for community use. For Oct. 1 to May 31 the various community groups used approximately 62 per cent of available time based on a total of 159 hours per week.
But, as of Dec. 31, Catholic schools will be reduced to three gyms because of renovations and upgrades to schools.
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The proposed gym would be 675 square metres in size. Combined with the current St. Pat's gym, there would be 2,181 square metres of space.
Foley said this space, room to hold 3,000 people, would have economic spinoffs for the city. It could host trade shows, conferences, cultural events and allow larger sporting competitions, such as Super Soccer and the Arctic Winter Games.
"We believe this is a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of a gym already planned. Where will the city of Yellowknife get an opportunity to build a space such as this? We must remember that the shared cost for a facility that can house over 3,000 people for such a price may never come again," said Foley.
The only reason not to support the plan, said Foley, is timing. Council may be reluctant to spend taxpayers dollars at the moment, she said.
"But this is something you look at for 20 years down the road, 30 years. It's a decision you're making for that length of time and the money $1.4 million isn't much when you at it for that length of time," said Foley.
On Monday, city council's community services committee had the opportunity to talk about the proposal and another proposal from the other school districts to team up on the development of gymnasium facility at Sir John Franklin.
At the afternoon meeting, the committee recommended denying a request from Yellowknife Education District No. 1 to take part in the development of a national standard-size gymnasium and its request for $1.6 million in funding for the project.
The committee, however, said it would continue negotiations with the Catholic board for it's twin-gym project.
Before the council decides whether or not to provide funding members will examine what need there is for additional gym space.
According to committee research, demand on gymnasium space is relatively low in the city. But as the population increases, a greater need for space will likely arise. When this occurs the city will have another opportunity to move on development of a larger gymnasium, they said.
The school board said it would like to have confirmation of funding by the end of September, with construction to begin in July of next year.
