Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 25/98) - The Twin Pad Arena may have flopped, but the double gym has taken flight.

Monday night, city council approved spending $1.5 million to create a huge double gym connecting Weledeh Catholic school and St. Pat's high school.

The money is a contribution to the Catholic school board's planned expansion of Weledeh. Expected to be completed in Sept. 2000, the double gym will measure 775 square metres, with a nine-metre-high ceiling.

The expenditure was approved in spite of stiff opposition at the meeting from leaders of sports groups, who said the community needs an arena more than it needs a giant gym.

Those who opposed the contribution also pointed out that just two weeks ago, the city commissioned a $50,000 study designed to help it prioritize capital expenditures such as the gym contribution. The report is not complete.

"If you plan on going ahead and building a gym anyway, then why go ahead with the needs assessment?" asked public school board chairman Dan Schofield.

The public school board has offered to partner with the city on the planned expansion of Sir John Franklin high school, offering it the land to build two new arenas that would then be shared by the school. Schofield and others opposed the gym contribution, seeing it as a threat to the chances the city would take up that offer.

Coun. Peggy Near agreed. "We do need a regulation-sized ice surface and we need it soon ... If we spend almost $1.5 million on a gym, we will definitely have to give away something we need."

But, Catholic school board chairman Loretta Foley, and councillors who supported the gym proposal, said both could be done. Foley emphasized council committed itself to the project in July, quoting the meeting minutes and noting a move to direct administration to "discuss" rather than "negotiate," a partnering agreement had been voted down.

Coun. Cheryl Best agreed the city had committed itself to the deal. "I believe that, when we approved that recommendation, our words to administration were 'Make it happen.'" Best emphasized the discussion was not about expanded gym space, but about a huge indoor facility that could accommodate events that would draw dollars into the city.

Coun. Robert Slaven said his understanding of the same meeting was that council had approved the recommendation to keep the door open to getting involved in the project. Slaven said the city should defer a decision until the needs assessment study is completed.

In addition to supporting the gym expansion, Coun. Blake Lyons commended both the public and Catholic school boards for securing $20 million in funding from the territorial government for their expansion plans.