City asking public if more work is needed before TCC renovations get underway

Today, city staff took the media on a tour of the facility and laid out future plans for potential renovations.

Community and Protective Service Director Byron McCorkell says since user demand has grown far past original expectations, the City of Kamloops wants to know how far facility improvements should go before they get construction underway on the upcoming renovations.

“All these projects are starting to align with one another. Doesn’t mean we’re going to do them. But if we don’t talk about them, then when we go to talk about them, people are going to say ‘Well why didn’t you talk about it when you were doing the roof’?

Along with a new roof and siding improvements, the 26-year-old Canada Games Pool needs mechanical, electrical, lighting and HVAC improvements — at a cost of $9 million.

For the fieldhouse, the city will be adding a P.A. system, improve the lighting, re-do the indoor track line markings, and resurface the hardwood courts. McCorkell says the $400,000 cost to do so is included in the operations budget.

And for $2.5 million, Hillside Stadium improvements on the horizon include lighting, sound, a new scoreboard, a permanent throws cage, re-doing the media booth roof, along with new artificial turf and track surfacing.

Altogether the cost for the needed improvements will be under $12 million.

“Well we’ve got our general maintenance. So we know we need to do the roof on the pool, we know we need to do the siding on the pool. We know we need to do the rubber on the track and the turf in the field. They’re all in the budget.”

The city wants to know the public’s thoughts on things like installing a dive tank to the pool to boost the competition side of the facility, adding a removable air-supported dome for year-round Hillside Stadium usage, and a second floor expansion of the fitness gym in the main building.

With those, McCorkell knows the ongoing conversation with the Performing Arts Centre could have an impact on public perception of the projected cost.

“We have a PAC that we’re talking about too. We have other conversations that we’re having,” McCorkell admits. “In regards to this building, these are ones that are being pushed because we’re going to be doing some maintenance.”

With construction coming up, the city has already set up a section of their Let’s Talk website for residents to give their input on whether the improvements should go farther than the planned maintenance.

“If we were to do all the things we’ve talked about — the dome, the plaza addition, fitness centre — this facility would basically double its size and usable spaces. Which we could do dramatically cheaper than if we were to build a new one.”

For now, the upcoming renovations already budgeted for the TCC are slated to be all wrapped up by 2021.

by Dylana Milobar

City asking public if more work is needed before TCC renovations get underway

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