With construction nearly finished, Morinville residents will soon get a chance to explore the town’s new $30.5-million leisure centre.
Crews were busy putting the final touches to the newly minted Morinville Leisure Centre ahead of its May opening. The facility sports multiple dressing rooms for both the rink and field house, an upstairs gym and a seating plan to house hundreds of spectators. The rink alone has 440 seats with the option to bring in portable seating if necessary.
Brad Reiter, site superintendent with Clark Builders, said within the next two weeks, crews will start bringing in the ice for the rink while finishing up with the line painting in the field house.
“Pretty much just finishing up,” Reiter said on Thursday. “(There was) nothing really (challenging with) part of the building but we had challenges with the exterior environment around us having to get off the highway in the mud and in the water.”
He said the project is on time and on budget.
The multi-purpose facility, construction of which started in 2017, is meant to house a variety of sports from volleyball and soccer to hockey and sled hockey. At peak construction, roughly 100 people worked on the facility with about 20 from the town itself. With the project near its end, the workforce has dropped to about 20.
Mayor Barry Turner said the town plans to have a soft opening for the facility in May and a grand opening sometime in September. This means the facility will be operational for summer programming and events.
“It’s the single largest capital project in Morinville’s history,” Turner said. “Naturally, I’m very excited about it. I think council also did a great job in terms of getting a solid contractor for the construction of the building. Sometimes you see project delays or cost overruns, but this project is running quite smoothly.”
Back in 2013 when council voted to move forward on this project, the intent was to look at a facility that could be utilized by the region. Turner said it was anticipated that the town’s new facility would be a draw and believes it will be large enough to accommodate demands.
This is also why the facility is providing a variety of options for users.
“You’ve got to account for diversity in the users as well,” he said. “If you’re accommodating for things like sled hockey, you’re appealing to a much larger surface area.”
Turner wasn’t able to provide any details on which vendors would be coming into the facility, as the town is still in the middle of negotiations. As for possible naming rights or a possible sponsor, Turner said there are a number of interested parties the town is speaking with but so far there’s nothing to announce.
He did mention he hoped to have something to announce soon but wouldn’t say if that would happen on opening day.
