The nearly 50-year-old Lloydminster Golf and Curling Centre is in need of repairs, according to a report presented to council.
The aging building requires mechanical and electrical updates, along with improvements to items that no longer meet modern standards.
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Joel Turcotte, director of recreation and cultural services for the City of Lloydminster, presented the item at the April 20 regular council meeting. The report examined the current condition and utilization of the building.
“In the entrance and exterior, lack of wayfinding signage inside and outside of the building,” he explained.
Other items identified as needing updates include barrier-free parking stalls that do not meet current standards, while the building entrance requires barrier-free operators. The area where golf carts are washed does not have dedicated drainage.
“It is currently pushing water to the building causing damage,” said Turcotte.
The report also outlined items such as the locker rooms being oversized for the facility and not fully utilized.
Currently, the curling area is well utilized.
“Several large bonspiels take place in the facility, but there are accessible issues in accessing the restaurant upstairs,” he said.
Some architectural updates are also required. The existing second-floor addition for restaurant storage is non-compliant combustible construction and needs to be removed.
“Some critical mechanical updates, HVAC, plumbing, BMS (building management system) are at the end of life,” said Turcotte.
The ice plant is also reaching the end of its life, and there is a depressed area of the pad for the ice surface that will require further investigation. A number of other critical electrical and mechanical upgrades will be needed for the building to continue operating.
A suggested implementation timeline was laid out, breaking the updates into short-, medium- and long-term phases. The total estimated cost is projected at $9.7 million.
The report also outlined a number of suggested program updates, including new circulation space and lockers, a flex room and reorganization, pro shop updates, squash court upgrades, patio extensions and relocating course maintenance administration.
Coun. Jim Taylor commented on the future direction of the building, questioning what the long-term strategy was.
“Are we looking to increase memberships? Are we looking to increase rentals, are we looking at potential revenue, what’s our return on investment if we do all these upgrades,” he said.
Tracy Simpson, executive manager of community development services, said the report focused on what it would take to maintain the building.
“The goal wasn’t necessarily looking at how can it grow; it’s more looking at how do we keep the building going to serve the users that it serves now,” she said. “We know golf and curling are services that our community really enjoy, they’re very popular, curling is on an upswing and they’re growing.”
She said if the city wants to keep its aging buildings, it’s important to do proactive maintenance on them.
“If we don’t invest in the aging infrastructure, then they won’t be able to grow as an organization, or the sport of golf can’t grow and therefore those are amenities that our community will lose,” she said. “If we want buildings to live 40, 50 or 70, 80 years, they require these renewal phases.”
City manager Dion Pollard pointed out that if they were to dream bigger than what was presented, it’s possible the project would sit on a backlog and not get addressed.
“I think we were very cognoscente on this one if we dream too big and this number instead of $9.7M looks like $20M or $30M or $40M, now this sits on a shelf for 10 years, 20 years because it’s not doable,” he said. “We’re very cognoscente of the dollars we have, our current financial background and the users that are already there and keeping it within reality.”
Executive manager of operations Don Stang pointed out recent lessons learned from the old museum building.
“When we look at the old museum building it was in the same state,” he said. “When it comes to aging facilities, if you aren’t going to invest in the facilities, at some point you’re not going to be able to invest in them because they’ve deteriorated past the point of repair.”
Taylor said the comments from administration are important.
“The cost is going to be a lot higher if we have to rebuild the whole thing,” he said.
Coun. David Lopez questioned what the plan is for the area with the Centennial Civic Centre soon to be demolished.
“With the Civic Centre coming down and that land being potentially available for sale or investment or rebuild for the city, I think in 2027 we plan to propose to council in the budget a recreation and leisure services master plan that we can add some value in that area,” said Simpson.
Pollard explained planning for the long term gives the city options to gradually invest money into the project.
“We can slowly put some dollars in if we plan it properly, we can put $2-3M over a two-to-three-year period, versus everything going at once and now we have to spend $10M at once. We may not have to borrow if we piecemeal it by those years,” he said.
The building was originally constructed in 1978, with the racquetball courts added in 1979. The item was accepted as information and will return to a future council meeting for a decision.
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