New splash pad OK’d
Residents on Port Weller’s west side will have a new place to cool down, hopefully by next summer.
Children in northeast St. Catharines will be able to cool off closer to home with the approval of a new splash pad at Port Weller Community Centre.
Council OK’d the site for the city’s fourth splash pad at the centre’s Bogart Street Park, which is north of Lakeshore Road and east of Arthur Street.
“The aquatics committee that Coun. (Jennie) Stevens and I are a part of underwent a long, long investigation of potential sites,” said Grantham Coun. Bill Phillips. “It was unanimous the Port Weller Community Centre would be the site for this.”
Phillips said the city’s goal is to create “recreation hubs” and the Port Weller centre already has tennis courts, soccer fields and the community centre.
The bonus, he said, is there’s a plan to increase programming at the community centre so it will be open longer with its change rooms and washroom facilities.
Council is currently trying to put a splash pad in all six wards.
Splash pads now exist at Lester B. Pearson Park in St. George’s, Catherine Street Park in St. Patrick’s and West Park in St. Andrew’s. The new splash pad is in Grantham ward.
Merritton and Port Dalhousie wards are still on the list for splash pads, but both have outdoor pools.
A small pool also exists in St. Andrew’s in Lincoln Park. St. George’s has the indoor St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatics Centre.
In March 2016, city council approved an outdoor aquatic facilities strategy that including building more splash pads and decommissioning the least-used outdoor pools.
It took $1.1 million designated for pool facility renewals to implement the strategy by closing Lancaster Park, Arthur Street and Burgoyne Woods pools and constructing a splash pad in the north end of the city.
It created the Outdoor Aquatic Facilities Task Force in August 2016 to find a location for that splash pad and implement the aquatic strategy.
The task force chose the Port Weller site in June and held a public information meeting in September.
“We will now go ahead in our next steps to investigate the location for the next two splash pads,” Phillips said. “That will proceed during the next year.”
Acting director of parks, recreation and culture services Phil Cristi said there’s approximately $760,000 left in the fund.
Once the Port Weller splash pad is built it will have a balance of approximately $360,000 for splash pads, minus $50,000 for a consultant to design or report on the feasibility of a destination pool.
Staff were directed Monday to proceed to the procurement process of the design and build at Port Weller. They’ll include consideration for a cistern in the procurement process for reusing gray water for irrigation of soccer fields at the property.
The amount is not to exceed $400,000.
Phillips asked that staff try to complete the splash pad by July 1.
Director of transportation and environmental services Dan Dillon said the timeline could present some challenges because the design is not quite at the stage it could be tendered and there are servicing issues that must be worked out first.
“We can certainly work towards that date, but I would be hesitant to guarantee it at this point because there are a lot of other potential implications associated with it.” kwalter@postmedia.com twitter.com/karena_standard