Rec centre underway at former Scott Park site
Long-awaited facility is named in memory of Bernie Morelli
Construction has begun on Hamilton’s “city-wide jewel” — a recreation centre that will serve the needs of seniors and families in an east-end neighbourhood continuing to undergo revitalization.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the future 54,000-square-foot Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre — across the street from Tim Hortons Field — was held Thursday.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger, Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Green and members of the Morelli family were among those at the former site of Scott Park school on King Street East.
“I believe that this project will be symbolic not just of the life lived by Mr. Bernie Morelli, but this entire community and the opportunity it presents to bring the generations together here in Hamilton,” Green said.
The centre will be named after the former ward councillor who died in January 2014 after a lengthy illness. Morelli was first elected to city council in 1991.
“It was Bernie Morelli’s vision and dream to have this happen here,” Eisenberger said. “We’ve come together as council and previous council to say this is something we want to make happen on behalf of his legacy.”
Work has been underway for more than a decade to build a facility like this in the ward, said Jack Brown, the city’s director of recreation.
The centre, which is expected to be completed in 2018, will connect to the revamped Jimmy Thompson Pool on King Street East. It will include a gymnasium, fitness rooms and leisure pool.
Programming will be focused around seniors with low-impact fitness classes like volleyball and chair aerobics. It will also include swimming lessons and sessions for parents and babies.
Green, who called the future centre a “city-wide jewel,” noted it’s one of several investments in the “renewed Ward 3.”
“This neighbourhood — this whole side of the city — hasn’t really had this type of project in quite some time.”
The recreation centre and revamped pool are a $29-million commitment while $11 million has gone toward improvements in parks, sidewalks, roads and street-calming measures, Green said.
The centre is part of the stadium precinct, which will also feature a new high school and courtyard between the two buildings with a skating rink/splash pad and reflecting pool.
Altogether, the recreation facility and ice/splash pad are expected to ring in around $25.6 million with the high school budgeted for $32 million.
The joint city and Hamilton public school board project is the culmination of years of debate that saw proposals come and go.
“Over the last number of years, we’ve really come together and said we need to start building our communities and resources collectively and collaboratively,” Eisenberger said. “There’s a shared vision.”