Re: "Twin rink project not a good fit for Forest Lawn," Letters, The Gazette, Feb. 23.
The outdoor recreation and community hub will benefit St. Albert for generations. As a grandfather with several grandchildren growing up in St. Albert, I’m excited about this project, especially because it will support our youth and community in recovering from the pandemic.
For the past five years I have volunteered on the board of the Active Communities Alberta, the non-profit organization that is leading this project. The board members have a wide range of professional backgrounds and have put in countless volunteer hours to support these efforts.
The outdoor hub will be a year-round facility that features twin recreation pads that are refrigerated and covered. From October until April these will be refrigerated rinks for activities such as leisure skating, hockey, and ringette. For the other six months of the year, the concrete pads can be used for pickleball, lacrosse, ball hockey, roller skating, and community events. The facility will be operated on a self-sufficient basis, without ongoing taxpayer support.
The project has a lot of momentum, to say the least. We have entered into a 35-year lease agreement with St. Albert Public Schools for land behind Paul Kane High School. We have also raised over $500,000 in funding from the community and the province recently announced $3.5 million towards this project. We thank all those who have supported the project in achieving these major milestones. The next major milestone will be construction, which we expect to start this summer.
With support from the City of St. Albert, we evaluated multiple City-owned sites in St. Albert for this facility. Following this collaboration, the City advised us it would be best to pursue non-City land for the project. In alignment with the advice, we proceeded to explore the facility being located on school-owned land. This led us to the field behind Paul Kane, which has the largest concentration of schools in St. Albert with over 2,000 students who will benefit from use of the facility.
The facility will be accessed from Sir Winston Churchill Avenue, a four-lane arterial roadway. Parking will be at the new parking lot between Outreach School and the St. Albert Public Schools district office. This parking lot was constructed in the summer of 2021. Beyond the primary parking lot, there are additional parking lots (Outreach School, the district office) which we can use for overflow if required, again accessed from Sir Winston Churchill Avenue.
We appreciate the support we have received for this project and welcome additional input. We will be hosting virtual town halls in the coming weeks. We look forward to opening this year-round facility to benefit all ages and future generations to come.
Kelly Smith, vice-president, Active Communities Alberta
