Plans for the City of Weyburn’s new Recreation and Culture Centre (WRCC) were approved by city council on Monday evening, worth a total of $25 million, to be built in conjunction with the Southeast Cornerstone’s new elementary school at the former location of the Weyburn Junior High.
Council approved the tender bid by Wright Construction of Saskatoon, and construction is slated to begin in March with completion by April of 2021 of both the WRCC and the new elementary school.
The commissioning of the new facilities will occur from April to June, and proposed official opening will be September 2021.
Southeast Cornerstone still has to approve the tender for the school portion of the project, which is expected to occur at their next board meeting in February. The total cost of both parts of the project is forecast to be $45,041,741.
The WRCC, which will be owned and operated by the City of Weyburn, will be 8,000-square feet in size and will include several arts and recreational components, including a gallery, classrooms and pottery studio which are all currently housed in the Signal Hill Arts Centre, said city manager Mathew Warren, who noted the gallery will be one-and-a-half sizes bigger than the Allie Griffin Art Gallery located on the lower level of the Weyburn Public Library.
The WRCC will include an indoor playground area, with the play structure equipment yet to be chosen for it, and then the main sports area will feature a half-FIFA sized soccer field with synthetic turf, with a playing area of 45 by 60 feet, large enough for 12-and-under indoor soccer.
There will also be a warmup track, batting cage and pitching tunnel nearby, eight dressing rooms (four of which will have access to the fields outside), and on the second level, there will be a three-lane 220-metre running track around the circumference of the field. There will also be space for 288 spectators on the upper level, and a “flex gym” which will be big enough for recreational volleyball or pickleball courts.
The bid for building the WRCC is $19,673,933, with a commons area to cost $303,000, and the south parking lot will cost $419,250.
Costs to the City outside of the contractor costs for the facility includes $1.5 million for equipment like the indoor play structure, sound equipment, simulator equipment, interior and exterior signs and maintenance equipment. There will also be a cost of $1.85 million for professional fees for the architects and project management, and a contingency fund of $1,253,817, for a grand total to the City of $25 million.
For the full story about the WRCC facility, see the Jan. 30 issue of the Weyburn Review.
