Full marks for the committee that has set about the task of rejuvenating the Dana Quewezance Memorial Football Field at Woodlawn Regional Park.
The three-phase plan encompasses a host of positive targets, some of which have already been met.
The field and area that surrounds it certainly merits the attention. The setting is beautiful and begs for further development.
It isn't until the plans hit Phase 3 that we begin to question the validity of the proposal.
Building up that sector of Woodlawn to include a first-class track and grooming additional areas for field events for a proposed hosting gig for a future Saskatchewan Summer Games brings out the critic in us.
Making Woodlawn the centrepiece and core for the Summer Games will require much more than merely building a track and redesigning some nearby acreage to accommodate javelins, shot puts and long jump pits.
The committee will be made aware of the fact that hundreds of athletes of both genders will have to be provided with complete washroom facilities, including showers. They will require hundreds of pounds of food and will need warm-up facilities and cool down sectors. The pressure on infrastructure will be significant.
If Woodlawn is to be the centre for a Summer Games program, these athletes will need to be bused back and forth according to their busy schedules and that will have to be done from various points in the city.
Perhaps our Summer Games bid committee might be better advised to revisit Estevan's previous Summer Games bidding plan that called for ECS to be the central point of activity, as it was during this city's last successful run at the Games way back in 1980.
ECS already has shower and washroom facilities to accommodate 1,000 people and a couple of large common areas where athletes could be housed dormitory-style. Or, if hotel accommodations are required, there are eight of them within walking distance. ECS already has a commercial kitchen that can sling out 500 hot and multi-layered meals in an hour. What could be done at Woodlawn, even if the nearby golf course kitchen were to be made available?
The bid that Estevan made for the Games in the early 2000s, included the construction of a track behind the school, making use of the additional acreage that is owned by the school division. To build on what is there would take no more time and money than what would be required at Woodlawn to build or rebuild.
The case for parking, communications and accessibility also favours ECS, we believe.
Now having said all that and perhaps raising some of what we hope will be seen as valid points, we make the statement that we will stand firmly behind whatever route our bid committee decides to take. We just thought we would be derelict in our duty if we didn't point out what we see as possible flaws in a plan to make Woodlawn and the Quewezance Field the focal point of a Summer Games bid as well as a centre for future track and field endeavours in the Energy City.
