Developers' money helps maintain rec facilities in Assiniboine South
Winnipeg Free Press
Saturday February 26 2005
PATTI EDGAR
A tense high school hockey quarter-final had Kathy Mitchell cheering from the packed stands of a Charleswood rink.
The mother of three teenagers is a veteran of the Varsity View Sportsplex and its sister community centre, Varsity View.
Hockey, ringette, and T-ball have meant many hours at the two facilities for Mitchell, a former volunteer. They've also meant many hours hooting and clapping on the sidelines, just as she was earlier this week while her son, Ben, played defence.
"I'm getting to the end of my career with my kids getting older, but I've spent a lot of time at Varsity View," said Mitchell. "I think this is a great area. You have lots of people willing to put in the time to make it work. We're very, very lucky."
Assiniboine South, which takes in Charleswood, Westdale and Tuxedo, is the richest neighbourhood in Winnipeg, with an average household income of $58,000, compared to a city average of $38,000.
The region has two arenas and four community centres with three satellite sites. There are also two city-run centres -- the Eric Coy Craft Corner and the Eric Coy Recreation Centre. (Combined, the two have only about $3,000 in city programming a year.)
Assiniboine South also has the popular not-for-profit Rady Centre and Springers Gymnastics Club, which aren't city-owned.
Growth in Charleswood over the last few decades has helped Coun. Bill Clement keep those centres "relatively new."
In the last five years alone, $1.5 million in cash from developers earmarked for parks and recreation has gone into his ward, St. James and St. Charles.
That's because of a city program that allows developers who are expanding neighbourhoods to give cash in lieu of land for parks and rec facilities, 75 per cent of which stays in the community. The remaining 25 per cent is spread evenly among the rest of the city, including inner-city neighbourhoods that don't grow and therefore don't have access to that extra revenue.
A city study called PUFS recommends closing the Westdale Community Centre and outdoor pool, and the Eric Coy Recreation Centre and opening a community campus facility at the central location of Roblin Boulevard and Harstone Road.
If the city follows the blueprint in the PUFS study, there won't be any public pools in the area, indoor or outdoor. But Coun. Bill Clement, who holds the powerful position as budget boss on council, insists PUFS is a dead issue in Charleswood.
"No community centre is going to close in my ward, that's not going to happen," he said.
Westdale Community Centre, on the western edge of the ward near Headingley, is targeted for closing under PUFS. It's 13,000 square feet, but it's also by far the newest in the area since it was rebuilt in 1991 at a cost of $850,000 and has a city-run outdoor pool next door.
President Barb Girard says Westdale is a poorer pocket of the region and shutting down the club and the pool would hurt. "The community absolutely wants to see it stay," she said.
Clement says it's not only unnecessary, but also impractical to put a community campus in the narrow city lots at Roblin and Harstone where a library and the former city hall building sit today.
He says if residents in the region want anything, it's indoor soccer and more enclosed rinks.
On the other side of his ward, Tuxedo Community Centre isn't up for closing, but the board has toyed with the idea of shutting it down anyway. The centre has two outdoor rinks, a day care and lots of programs and coaches, but struggles to find volunteers for the board.
Representatives from Tuxedo and two neighbouring River Heights centres have recently met city officials about selling off their properties to finance a mega-recreation, library and health complex, possibly on the 200-acre Kapyong Barracks or the River Heights Community Centre's current home.
"We are exploring all the options and being proactive, so if we get to the point where the city is making decisions about us we can beat them to it with a viable business plan," said Pamela Clarke, president of Tuxedo Community Centre. Clement said there is merit to that idea, especially if it were built on Kapyong, which is surplus to the military and set to eventually be redeveloped. The site has a pool, gymnasium and curling club.
Charleswood is already strides ahead of PUFS when it comes to the idea of building a skateboard park.
Friends and family of Michael Komenda have almost reached their $65,000 fundraising goal to build a skate park this spring. It's money Clement has promised to match.
The 14-year-old Grade 9 student from Charleswood Junior High School died in 2002. He fell about four storeys from behind the upper-deck seating of the empty Canad Inns Stadium to the roof of the southwest ground-level washroom.
His parents say he was looking for a challenging location for skateboarding when the accident occurred and hope the memorial park might prevent another tragic death.
The new skateboard park is set to be built in Marj Edey Park, the sprawling, treed site off Wilkes Avenue with sports, baseball fields and the Varsity View Sportsplex. Michael used to play soccer there.
patti.edgar@freepress.mb.ca
Assiniboine South
37,000 people -- six per cent of Winnipeg's population
What public facilities the region has now:
Two wading pools
Four community centres
One library
Two arenas
One outdoor pool
Two recreation centres
What the study recommends:
Closing the Westdale Community Centre, Westdale outdoor pool, and the Eric Coy Recreation Centre.
Opening a community campus facility at Roblin Boulevard and Harstone Road, a spray pad at the Charleswood Community Campus, and a skate park at Varsity View Community Centre.
Price tag: $4.5 million