A7

By Jim Dumville

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The Town of Woodstock will soon complete a Building Canada Fund application seeking financial support for a Carleton Civic Centre expansion worth as much as $15 million.

At the Sept. 22 council session, council unanimously approved a plan to apply to the Building Canada Fund as it awaited a steering committee report detailing the planned upgrades of the recreational facility.

The steering committee, which included officials from the town, as well as representatives from the Rotary Club – received a final report from Fredericton consultant James Chandra of Foresight Business Services, who conducted a needs analysis on the facility. The cost of the $8,000 study was divided three ways – Enterprise Carleton paid $3,000, while the town and the Rotary Club each paid $2,500.

Rotarian Scott Dunlop, who chaired the steering committee, said members of the committee welcomed Chandra's report.

"We're excited with the needs analysis report," he said. "We're excited to move on to the next process."

Dunlop took the results of Chandra's report to the Woodstock Rotary Club Monday, Oct. 6. He declined to offer details until he spoke to his fellow Rotarians. The club, which played a central role in the construction of the $6-million-plus Carleton Civic Centre in the mid-'90s, has agreed to partner with the town in its effort to fund the major expansion of the building.

Both Dunlop and Woodstock chief administrative officer Ken Harding confirmed the estimated value of the expansion.

"We're looking at a $15-million project," Harding said.

Dunlop agreed with that figure, but said a final report regarding the details of the major enhancement would not be complete until at least the third week of this month. He and Harding noted, however, an application to the Building Canada Fund had to be submitted by Oct. 10 or the town would have to wait a full calendar year to apply again. That deadline forced council to give tentative approval to the application before an exact dollar figure was announced.

Dunlop explained Chandra's report was "purely a needs analysis." To complete the study, the consultants talked to current users, potential users and other stakeholders to determine the level of demand for various services. For example, said Dunlop, the analysis determined there is more demand for ice time than the single surface can provide. One of the issues the needs analysis had to determine was whether there is ample demand to make a second ice surface viable.

He said the needs analysis looked at all current civic centre facilities, including the arena, the pool, the various community rooms and the fitness centre. It also determined the demand for potential new facilities, although Dunlop did not indicate what those would entail.

When council agreed to commission the needs analysis in March, then mayor Jeff Wright described what type of changes he was anticipating.

"It has to be a multi-purpose facility," Wright said following the March 11 meeting.

He said the needs analysis would be looking at the potential for additional facilities, such as a performing arts centre or agrena (agriculture arena), to be added to the civic centre complex.

While there are several steps which must be taken before a civic centre expansion is finalized, Dunlop is happy to see the potential project moving forward.

"There's been talk of this for many, many years," he said.

He said the Carleton Civic Centre has been a tremendous asset to the greater Woodstock community since it opened in 1996.

"Everybody recognizes the success of the civic centre," he said.

Dunlop said it is the steering committee's goal to build upon that success by providing more needed services to the greater community.