You may support or disapprove of the new aquatic and curling centre, but either way it will be opening soon.

Suzanne Gaida, Town of Cochrane, Senior Manager of Community Services, says while construction is proceeding well, there have been hiccups throughout the build.

"We did run into a few issues so the opening of the aquatic side has been delayed to June 2017 but we are still on track for the curling and multi-sport side of the project to be opened March of 2017. That is only 3 months and 6 months away."

When you enter the building in March, continued construction on the pool will occur behind closed doors but access to the new lobby, retail space, fitness centre, and curling will all be open.

While opening in stages was not the plan it will help keep additional costs at bay.

"Keeping the site operational where you make the site smaller has less costs to keeping it going, there are less contractors on site there is also revenue potential. The sooner we can open it and hand it over to the operators, which is Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre, as soon as we can hand it over they can start creating revenue which will also help offset the costs."

The facility does have a hefty price tag of an anticipated cost of $48 million including the $3 million overage reported in the Fall.

While the fundraising goal of $10.6 million is still below half way, Gaida is hopeful to see more money come in.

"We are hoping to ramp that up with the community groups, there has been a few grant applications that have gone in from the user groups. As we are getting closer to it and the excitement builds in the community we know now is the time to have conversations with some of the businesses and developers who have been waiting to see if it is really going to happen."

As far as programming goes the Spray Lakes board will be in charge; while it should be a fairly smooth transition it's unsure whether or not there'll be a minor lag in programming for the aquatic side.

"We are hoping it is not going to be an extended, we are thinking that there might be a week or two weeks where we need to do a shutdown. We are going to make it as painless as we can for the community."

To celebrate the grand opening a town celebration will occur.

"We are talking about a big party. Whether we do it in June when we open, or we just do an official kind of opening and wait until September when everybody is back ."

 

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