YCC site to be surveyed
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 14/01) - The picture is slowly losing its fuzz for the city's arena conundrum.
Preliminary geo-technical results are in from land beside Sir John Franklin high school, the site for a phased twin-pad arena.
During Monday's noon priorities, policies and budget committee meeting, Tim Mercer, acting senior administrative officer until Max Hall returns from Toronto, said bedrock depth ranges from three to 15 metres.
He said preliminary soil reports point to a mostly clay, sand, and silt foundation.
EBA Engineering is doing surveying for the city.
A full report is expected in the coming weeks and until then no solid money figures are possible to figure out how much it will cost to lay a foundation at the high school site.
The high school site has come under fire in the last few weeks.
City Coun. Robert Hawkins has warned the high school site could be another Niven Lake because uncertainty surrounds the foundation.
Coun. Dave Ramsay pulled his support from the high school site because of public pressure.
The city is also planning geo-technical surveys for the Yellowknife Correctional Centre site, the newest dark horse in the city's decade long arena debate.
Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighem said he met with territorial Justice Minister Jim Antoine last Thursday.
According to Van Tighem the minister granted access to the YCC site for the city to do geo-technical surveying.
Van Tighem said surveying work begins March 17 the site.
Van Tighem said geo-technical results from the YCC site are important in case final results from the high school site prove building there too costly.
"If there's a problem with the Sir John site we have something in our pocket," said Van Tighem.
Van Tighem said even if the high school site proves feasible the city will have information on YCC before any development takes place.
"We didn't have all the information before," said Van Tighem.
"This is foresight," said Van Tighem talking about Coun. Wendy Bisaro's motion to begin considering a multi-purpose community centre sometime in the future.
If the high school site holds up, the YCC is a prime location for the centre.
The motion came up at Monday's council meeting.
Councillor Robert Hawkins wanted to amend the motion with a deadline.
The rest of council wanted to leave it open ended and nobody seconded Hawkins' motion to amend.
"If we don't put a deadline we won't get off our butts and do it," he said.
"We need a motivation factor," said Hawkins
"We could end up sitting on this for years," he said.
Councillors Dave McCann and Dave Ramsay did not attend Monday's council meeting, which lasted 35 minutes.
