ELBOW - Leaders of the province as well as a large handful of guests were invited to check out the progress of construction being made on the resort village of Elbow’s new Line 19 Multiplex, and based on what was seen, there was plenty of eagerness to see the finished product see the light of day.
Held on Thursday, July 7, Katie Vollmer and Jocelyn Veikle of the Line 19 Multiplex Committee welcomed the turnout of people to the site of the upcoming building. Vollmer addressed those gathered and touched on the financial picture of the project.
“For all of the naming rights donors, that has totalled $780,000 so far, which is just incredible – we are just beyond words with that,” said Katie. “I also want to say that although the RM of Loreburn did not opt to purchase naming rights for a room specifically, they did donate $100,000 to the project. Thank you to everybody. We only have about $340,000 left to fundraise, approximately, from our initial $1.7 million amount. It’s been an incredible experience and we’re just so thankful to everybody who’ve been supportive of this project.”
Launched this past March, the facility’s naming rights initiative helped the project make serious waves in raising funds and help reach its financial goal. In offering the naming rights for the building’s numerous rooms and spaces, there was interest almost immediately from a number of people and groups. Sold on a first-come, first-serve basis to the highest eligible donors, the following people, groups and organizations were recognized:
The Harbor Golf Club and Resort has purchased the naming rights for the building for the amount of $400,000 over a 20-year period. As a result, the new name for the facility will be the Harbor Golf Community Centre.
In addition, Prairie Centre Credit Union was recognized as they purchased lifetime naming rights for the stage for $40,000. As well, the Letts Family purchased lifetime naming rights for the gymnasium/hall for $150,000, and Darren Schikowski purchased naming rights for the fitness centre for $50,000. Jason Wong, the chef of Harbor Golf Club’s restaurant, purchased the naming rights for the servery for $30,000, and naming rights for the kitchen went to JGL Cattle for $60,000. Diefenbaker Spice and Pulse purchased naming rights for the small meeting room for $50,000.
To date, there are three rooms in the building in which naming rights have not yet been spoken for, including the library ($100,000), a large meeting room ($100,000) and a coat room ($30,000).
Premier Scott Moe was introduced, who drove down to Elbow alongside local MLA, Dana Skoropad. Moe said that it takes the teamwork of people in the community to help make big things happen and credited the leadership of the committee in steering the ship toward the project seeing the light of day.
“Just over $300,000 owing on a facility that you know is going to be used greatly by all who come here throughout the summer,” said Scott. “Over a six-million dollar facility that’ll actually serve not only the community of Elbow, but the surrounding community and all those who come to a resort community like this. These don’t happen easily, they happen with some initiative that comes from the organization committee. I know they didn’t do this for the wage and the salary. I’ve been through a few of these in the area of the province where I live, and once they’re built and operating, they most certainly have 100% support from all when we can all share in the benefits that they ultimately provide. These are our gathering places in our rural communities. Rinks, recreation centers, community halls, things like this where you can host weddings, graduation events, or anything else that brings together a large number of people, which we can actually do now after two long years. The importance of coming together and actually having a facility like this is quite special, and also coming together as a community to actually build a facility like this is very, very special. We in government may tag along for the ride, but it’s your leadership that brings these things together.”
Echoing the Premier’s statements, MLA Skoropad looked back on the groundbreaking ceremony that was held last fall for the facility and credited everyone involved for making sure that their vision was realized.
“I can remember the sod turning event that was held for this facility,” he said, referencing the event held last October. “In your head, there’s a vision of what can be and what’s going to be, and THAT’S what is. It’s exciting to see this finally coming to fruition. There’s going to be incredible value here. This is what growth looks like behind me. It doesn’t happen because we hope it happens, it happens because we do things. You folks, right here. This is how communities form, and this is how they grow.”
MP Tolmie said that projects such as this all begin with one thought and one idea, giving credit to the committee for seeing such an idea through that ultimately resulted in the building standing behind everyone.
“As I was driving up here, I was thinking about, ‘What do you say?’,” he said. “How does something like this come to be? It starts with a thought, an idea and a vision. The hard part is the action and getting people on-board. Why do we do it and why does it happen? It’s because of what’s just happened in this parking lot – creating a community and creating it for the next generation. Every time that I’ve come up here, I’ve witnessed great community.”
Taking a tour of the in-progress facility, the walls were still wet and it was very much a blank slate, but even in its current state, people saw the beginning stages of rooms and spaces of what will come to be. Crews are still working on installing doors, windows and siding, and mechanical and electrical rough-ins are underway, with interior painting scheduled to start soon as the interior framing, insulating and drywall has been well underway.
The Line 19 Committee is optimistic that with the steady pace of construction, the building will open at the end of this November, putting it four months ahead of the originally-projected schedule.
