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Council greenlights $1m for Prospect rec centre

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Wed. Dec 17 - 5:20 AM
A new community recreation centre for Prospect is one step closer to reality after council approved an extra $1 million in funding Tuesday.

The financial boost was necessary, councillors heard, because of the increased cost of site development at the Western Common and general inflation in the construction industry since the original estimate was done in 2005.

But Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) objected to taking the $1 million away from its original purpose, restoring the stonework at city hall.

"I’m concerned about this," she said. "You have a building here that needs repair.

"We yell and scream at other people about not doing their best when it comes to heritage, yet we’re watching this place deteriorate around us."

Phil Townsend, the city’s manager of capital projects, said the city hall stonework restoration project is behind schedule due to worker shortages so all the money couldn’t be spent on time.

"This will result in no net loss of time or funding," he said of moving the money to another purpose.

The restoration was always thought to be a four-year project anyway, Mr. Townsend said.

"A side a year," he said.

The $8.5-million Prospect centre — with a full-size gym, kitchen and rooms for fitness, arts and cultural activities and meetings — is good news for the community, said Coun. Reg Rankin (Timberlea-Prospect).

Those thoughts were echoed by Coun. Debbie Hum (Rockingham-Wentworth), whose own district will have a sod-turning today for the Mainland Common Recreation Centre.

"I think we’ve got to focus here that another community is going to have a recreation centre and that is critical for infrastructure needs," she said. "I just wanted to applaud them."