Dustin Newman, president of the Kitscoty Sports and Event Centre building committee, explained the features of the planned facility during a town hall meeting at the Kitscoty Senior Centre a few days before the Easter weekend. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Planning for the estimated $2.05 million Kitscoty Sports and Event Centre is turning into a community-building exercise as well as a much-need multi-recreational facility.
The Kitscoty Senior Centre was packed with supporters and individuals voicing their concerns during a town hall update from building committee members on the evening of April 4.
Committee president, Dustin Newman, noted the facility will be located at Kitscoty Regional Park and include a three-sheet curling rink, a clubhouse for golfers, a concession for ball players and outdoor stalls and wash racks for 4-H members.
“There’s been a bunch of ideas and comments coming from the community, so we are just updating them on where we are at and on comments from the community,” said Newman, who also invited questions and input from the audience.
One attendee suggested adding a new hockey rink to the proposed project, but Newman said that wouldn’t fit into the footprint, including a parking lot.
Newman also explained another idea from the audience to build a combination curling rink and hockey rink north of the railway tracks would mean “you are still left with a clubhouse that’s failing and a concession that’s failing.”
He is confident the planned location facility will get used year-round by multiple user groups.
“It seems that more people are getting interested in it as it goes along,” Newman said.
He reports a new 18-hole disc (Frisbee) golf course will be installed at the regional park this spring.
The meeting was also an opportunity for Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright MLA Garth Rowswell to officially announce a $100,000 project grant he secured from Municipal Affairs.
“The group approached me in the summer of ‘22. I always look to towns to give me projects to try to help them with and this just came out of the blue,” said Rowswell.
The grant will go toward the design, lease and assessing the building site and could lead to some bigger grants down the road.
“It’s great news. I’ve curled in the curling rink for a while and it needs to be replaced,” said Rowswell.
“It’s a great community-building event. It will be a multi-use facility for Kitscoty. It will be great.”
Kitscoty Mayor Joy Bell is thrilled to see residents getting together to move the project forward.
“We are extremely fortunate in this community to have an active group of individuals who certainly see the potential of our regional park and what a new event centre would do for curling in our area,” said Bell.
The current curling rink is more than 70 years old and well past repair.
Bell says Kitscoty is blessed with the participation of the residents in this project.
“That’s where this energy comes from,” she said.
As a head table guest, Bell said, “We’d like to thank this committee for not only stepping forward and helping us develop an asset for Kitscoty that’s going to give us a better quality of life, but also inviting us here tonight to be part of this with them.”
Bell also acknowledged some citizens have some concerns.
“That’s one of the nice things about the committee hosting an open house,” she said.
Bell took the opportunity to tell the meeting what the village’s role in the project is after receiving a few inquiries about it.
“We are supporting them in any way we can, just like we would any community group that came forward and was trying to give us something like this,” she explained.
Newman also presented the latest facility design by Bexson Construction and renderings from Musgrave Agencies, noting sod turning is about two to three years away.
The fundraising total stands at just over $350,000 to date.
“We’ve got some donations for the dirt works planned, donated by Top Grade. So that will help out,” he said.
“We’re just starting on fundraising and we’ve got to get working on grants as well.”
In the meantime, all eyes are on the local klunker dunker ice drop fundraiser with the payout pot to the winner who guesses when the vehicle sinks, pushing $4,815 as of yesterday.
“It’s lots of fun for us and it’s definitely generating some interest,” said Newman.
Until the vehicle crashes through the ice, tickets and contest details are available at the klunkerdunker.com website.
