The Elk Valley Fieldhouse Society (EVFS) has found a potential solution to the loss of the Fernie Community Centre.
The group is exploring the possibility of building a fabric-covered steel structure to function as a temporary Community Centre. The proposed structure would be a steel-framed building with fabric cladding, approximately 200 ft long by 90 ft wide and up to 40 ft tall, based on similar sporting facilities in Cranbrook and Calgary.
EVFS members Aisha Haines and Antony McElwee appeared before council on Sept. 24 to pitch the idea of the structure as a temporary alternative to the community centre and seek a long-term 10 year lease agreement for the facility.
"It's just not realistic that [the City] they are going to be able to build a new community centre in the next year or two. What are we going to do in the meantime?" Haines told the Free Press. "The short-term solution is everyone's going to have to share and lose practice space and do their best with the few remaining facilities that we have in town. We needed something in between."
"If [clubs] they have to lose 50 to 60 per cent of their practice space over the next four to five years, these organizations will be devastated. The idea that we could share and wait for the City to build a new community centre just wasn't going to work."
EVFS is a non-profit that grew out of the Community Centre Working Group, which formed to help find short-term solutions to the loss of recreational space. Haines said the group is made up of representatives from various community groups, some of whom are quite familiar with steel structures.
"A lot of the groups that are involved in the society are youth sports groups and we spend every weekend a month during our sporting seasons in facilities like this all over Western Canada. We know what communities are building," she said.
Haines said EVFS would run the building rather than the city.
The structure has a lot of perks to it, including being able to accommodate many community groups at once with hanging dividers to separate different areas. McElwee noted in his presentation that there would be enough room for three active pickleball courts and a full-size basketball court to be in use simultaneously.
It would be anchored to the ground with pins rather than attached to a foundation, which means the structure could be moved and relocated if necessary, and the length of the structure could be adjusted. McElwee said that it could take up to six months for the facility to be manufactured.
The fabric covering on the facility would last up to 15 years.
Preliminary estimates show the cost of construction could range from $2,250,000 to $2,450,000, and yearly operating cost from $150,000 to $200,000.
Council chose to defer decision on approval of the structure in order to investigate various streams of funding, particularly funding from the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI), which would help keep tax increases small.
Councillors Ted Shoesmith and Tracey Audia-Kelly both said they view the project proposal favourably so far.
"I think there's a massive bang for our dollar here. We're getting a facility that is better than our previous facility and it's one that's not going to burden city hall or the tax payer," said Shoesmith. "There would be a small tax implication, but it would be a fraction of the cost."
"In comparison, any other replacement that we might think of is going to run us into tens of millions," he added. "We're also looking down the barrel at the firehall, sewage improvements and water improvements. The roads are full of potholes. We have high taxes to start with and a borrowing limit. We can't afford to bring everything up to speed within our borrowing limit and our tax structures."
The proposed location for the structure is at the site of the outdoor ice rink near the Aquatic Centre. Shoesmith said the City has made the difficult decision to shut down the rink because there isn't enough volunteer labour to help manage and maintain it.
He was involved with installation of the rink and said it took 14 hours of snow shovelling to bring it up to operational standards on opening day last winter.
Audia-Kelly said the city will investigate bringing back the rink at City Hall as an alternative for outdoor winter recreation.
Haines said the rink site provides ample space for recreational opportunities.
"It absolutely fulfills the needs of the community centre," she said. "It's significantly larger. The outdoor rink's surface is 377 per cent larger than the gymnasium surface of the Community Centre. All of the events that occurred in the Community Centre can occur in a field house."
Haines emphasized that EVFS is focused on finding a mid-term solution to the lack of available indoor recreation space and that the City would be responsible for building another long-term facility.
"It quickly became obvious that we had to come with some mid-term solution that could be done relatively quickly to increase the available recreation and gathering space in Fernie," she said.
"Long-term is up for the city to decide if they're going to be building a new community centre. That's outside the scope of what we were looking at," she added.
