The Town of Barrhead hopes that construction on the new aquatic centre will begin sometime this spring.
That is what Barrhead’s Chief Administrative Officer, Martin Taylor, told council during their regular meeting on Tuesday, March 10.
In his CAO report, Taylor told council that administration have been meeting with the project’s architect, Steve Bushnell from BR2 Architecture, in an effort to fine tune the conceptual drawing for the aquatic centre.
Coun. Don Smith asked if the aquatic centre plans would be far enough along to present to the members of the newly formed tri-party committee meeting on March 31, with the members of the town and the county of Barrhead, along with Woodlands County being represented.
“The last meeting we had with the architect went well and was very technical in nature,” he said, adding that the conceptual plan has been completed and now BR2 is working on the finer details.
Taylor added that presently the architect is working with technical and mechanical engineers and the rest of the aquatic centre design team on details such as where the geothermal heating pipes will be going into the building.
“There is still a lot of work that is taking place behind the scenes, but we are making good progress and we will have a good set of drawings to present at the tri-party meeting,” he said.
After the March 31 tri-party meeting, Taylor said in about a month the town hopes to advertise for a project manager for the aquatic centre project after which administration will schedule a series of public open houses.
Mayor Gerry St. Pierre said he is also optimistic that construction on the new aquatic centre will begin some time this spring.
“In my discussions with Mr. Bushnell, he said it is his plan to have shovels in the ground in May and have the whole structure covered by next winter,” he said.
Smith then asked council if anyone had any concerns about Woodlands County’s participation in the project, citing an article in the March 10 issue of the Barrhead Leader.
In the article, Woodlands County Mayor, Jim Rennie, said that the county needed clarification about some of the numbers in the draft operating budget they received from the Town of Barrhead.
Rennie also said that the county wants to make sure all the partners are committed to the operating costs and not just the capital costs of the new facility.
Smith said reading between the lines, he wondered if anyone on council had any misgivings that Woodlands County may decide not take part in the project.
“I know we are all optimistic that the project will move forward, but maybe we should talk about some what ifs? We still have no commitment from Barrhead County for operating costs, only that they will contribute what they feel is fair and equitable and no operating commitment from Woodlands County,” he said, adding that Woodlands County’s commitment to the aquatic centre’s operating budget seemed contingent on contributions from both the town and county of Barrhead.
“I know we are optimistic we will have shovels in the ground by the spring, but I see we are still far away unless that March 31 meeting goes very well.”
St. Pierre said he has talked to Rennie and the Woodlands mayor assured him they are committed to the project.
“They just want to dissect the numbers a bit more and have some questions about how we arrived at some of those figures in the operating budget,” he said, adding that Barrhead Parks and Recreation Director, Sue Keenan, would be at the March 31 meeting to answer any questions Woodlands County may have. “He (Rennie) will continue to work with us to get a workable agreement with the County of Barrhead.”
