The City of St. Albert is eying mid-July to begin opening up Servus Place to the public.
City administration is recommending a phased approach to reopening Servus Place, with the fitness centre, including the walking track and indoor arenas likely opening up first.
On June 15, Percy Janke, the director of emergency management for the city's emergency operations centre, presented to the emergency management advisory committee with a tentative plan for reopening some facilities for public use.
City chief administrative officer Kevin Scoble said the plan is dependent on bringing forward the financials for the reopenings to city council for approval.
“The decision is not whether we can open facilities or not. The question is whether we can afford to do these things. That is what is coming forward,” Scoble said.
The council budget has been tight since COVID-19 hit and council will have to consider if it is financially smart to move forward with opening all facilities.
On June 29, administration will bring back financials for some of the reopenings, including the Servus Place fitness centre and indoor arenas (reopening possible for July 19 to 25) and Servus Place fitness programming and services, Fountain Park Recreation Centre and Servus Place aquatics and aquatics programming and arenas (reopening possible for Aug. 2 to 8).
The Jarome Iginla Arena and Kinex arenas are currently closed right now due to scheduled maintenance but are tentatively planned to reopen Aug. 9 to 15, pending approval for financials by council.
The fitness centre and indoor arena are tentatively recommended to open up from July 19 to 15, but the city needs to do further research on the financials of the opening, ensure the building can be staffed properly and make sure they can meet the COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.
While Servus Place facilities may take a few weeks to open up, kids can possibly go for a splash at the Woodlands Water Play Park starting the week of July 12 to 19, as it would take two weeks for Servus Place to get ready to go and recall staff that would be working at the splash park. The park would have a capacity of 100 users at a time and any additional residents who want to go for a splash would have to line up outside the park. Two staff would be working at a time – one for gate, one for monitoring.
St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said opening the water park is a big priority for her.
“For me, the Woodlands Water Park is a huge priority, so if we actually have to put some money in the budget to do some overtime on the weekends, I would love to see that. I say that because we prioritized last week at EAC to work with sports groups, that’s organized sports ... the Woodlands Water Park is the one place our parents can go that is outside and you don’t have to be registered in a soccer program or whatever so they can just go and play,” Heron said.
Later in July, other phases of Servus Place are being considered for reopening, and the city is already in discussions with the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce to discuss moving the Farmers' Market to accommodate for parking space.
Later in the summer the indoor artificial turf and community gym at Servus Place is tentative to open between Aug. 16 and 22, while the Landrex Water Play Centre and the clubhouses are slotted to open Aug. 29 to Sept. 5.
Saunas, steam rooms, hot tubs, childminding, raquetball and squash courts, and indoor playgrounds do not have a tentative date for reopening as the city is waiting on future guidelines from council.
Jennifer Henderson covers rural Alberta matters under the Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada.
