A committee representing various community sports and recreation groups announced Thursday that it has formed a three-phase plan to restore Dana Quewezance Memorial Field and pursue the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games.
It's an ambitious project, with a total budget that should come in somewhere around $1.1 million dollars if the third, most forward-looking phase is completed.
If all goes according to plan, Estevan will have a revamped athletic field for soccer and football, with necessary upgrades like new lighting and additional grandstands. There will be something for families, with a playground and picnic area, and eventually, a running track and other track and field facilities.
Once again, it's a very ambitious plan, but if all comes to fruition, this could be big for Estevan.
If there is an official bid for the 2016 Games, that should mean increased funding and more venues being constructed that currently are not available in Estevan.
There could be opportunities for many Estevan sports groups here, mainstream and non-mainstream.
It would be great to host the Summer Games again after a 36-year absence. With the city continuing to grow and a generous corporate community always willing to help out, it only makes sense.
That's a long way off though. A lot of work is in store for the people who were willing to step up and get involved. Let's hope others will join them.
Along with creating new opportunities for various groups, you could also view this as a revitalization project for the southeast area of the city.
Hit the hardest by the 2011 floods, the area is slowly getting back on its feet and this project should only help.
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What to make of the enigma that is the Estevan Bruins?
In their second game against the powerhouse Flin Flon Bombers in a week, the Bruins had a big opportunity. The Bombers had stumbled, losing three straight, and they were at the end of a lengthy road trip.
The Bruins took advantage of that in the first two periods, taking a 2-0 lead on a team that looked completely flat.
They were only 20 minutes away from a big win that felt, to me anyway, like it could be a turning point in the club's miserable start to the season.
Of course, it's never that simple with a team struggling to get out of the loss column, and it wasn't on this night.
The Bombers scored three goals in the third, and if it weren't for a breakthrough goal from struggling 19-year-old Matt Brykaliuk in the final minute, the Bruins would have come away with even less than they did.
Instead of building off that goal, the Bruins surrendered the overtime winner quickly on what was admittedly a pinpoint shot by Landon Hiebert.
At least they got a point. (That one's for you, Mercury editor Chad Saxon.)
It was important to pick up a win against Weyburn the next day, especially as the last-place Wings had beaten Flin Flon on Friday night. The Bruins did win that game, rather convincingly.
Still, I doubt many fans came away from the weekend's action with a good feeling.
It's time for the Bruins to show us whether this is as good as they get, or whether, as Dennis Green would put it, they are what we thought they were.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at sports@estevanmercury.ca, on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. The Trailer Park Boys announced Monday that they're going to do a third movie. De-hee-heeecent!
