The next phase of the long process to replace the North Battleford Civic Centre has gotten the green light at council Monday.
Council has voted to go ahead with a contract with Group2 Architecture for the Civic Centre preliminary replacement study.
The Civic Centre replacement process has been preliminary up to this point, with discussions happening over the last three years.
A Civic Centre replacement committee had been put together to come up with blue-sky concepts of what they would want to see as a replacement facility. An initial report and proposals were brought to council in Sept. 2015.
Now the city is moving to the next step of commissioning a study from Group2 Architecture. According to a memo from city manager Jim Puffalt that was circulated at council Monday night, this study “would provide a preliminary review of the estimated costs as well as providing renderings.”
The price tag for the Group2 proposal is $21,810. The 2017 budget had already allocated $50,000 towards the study, which is to get under way in January of 2018.
While a replacement to the 55-year-old Civic Centre is still well down the road, in part due to some upgrades at the current facility in recent years, Puffalt stressed the need at the meeting to keep the process moving.
It’s a “long term project that we really need to start to process now,” said Puffalt to council.
Right now, a preliminary construction date of 2030 is being targeted for construction of the replacement facility, with costs estimated to be in the range of $30 million.
Puffalt adds a significant fundraising effort will be needed for it. “The more lead time we have, the better,” he said.
There are still many unanswered questions about the project, such as where the location would be, the size of the arena, whether it will have one ice surface or two, and what it would look like.
“This study will hopefully answer a lot of those questions and provide some alternatives and some options for council to consider,” said Mayor Ryan Bater to reporters after the meeting.
It’s also expected the study will provide officials a much more concise estimate on the overall costs of the project, in order to set targets for a potential fundraising campaign.
