The Municipality of Jasper still expects renovations for its recreation facilities to be finished in the third quarter despite a delay in the pool reopening.
Christopher Read, director of Community Development, presented an update on the renovations to council during its June 18 meeting and gave representatives of local stakeholder groups a tour of the facilities the following day.
“As is expected on a major renovation project, the Recreation Facilities Renovation Project has had many hurdles to overcome, several of which have impacted the schedule and required the use of contingency fund,” Read said.
"Carlson [Construction] and the project team have consistently found ways to lessen these impacts. However, some challenges like the multiple asbestos-containing walls and ceilings and the large concrete footings hidden inside the Fitness and Aquatic Centre just had to be dealt with as they came up and really didn’t have alternatives to save time or money.”
While the municipality had been planning to reopen the pool in June, this has been delayed to the end of July at the earliest.
Read said the delay is due to unforeseen supply-chain issues with the partition panels for changing spaces and showers, which are now expected to arrive in mid-August, and the pool may have to open with some areas incomplete and use temporary solutions.
“While this is a bit disappointing, I think it’s really important to remember how amazing this project is and the end goal, which is having nice Aquatic Centre that’s accessible to anybody, any kind of family, any person,” said Coun. Wendy Hall.
Mayor Richard Ireland asked if the delay would impact the project cost.
Read confirmed that there would be no cost impact to the municipality.
The Aquatic Centre would have a public area for lockers and private individual stalls/showers.
There will be a variety of private changing spaces, ranging from only having a simple bench to being large enough to accommodate families.
The Jasper Arena, meanwhile, is expected to open in time for the fall hockey season.
The project aims to fully renovate and modernize Aquatic Centre changing areas and fully renovate all existing arena dressing rooms while adding new dressing rooms.
It will also address lifecycle reinvestments in mechanical and electrical systems and improve physical accessibility, such as by installing an elevator in the Activity Centre.
The project is expected to be completed within the approved budget of $20.4 million.
However, the project had initially been budgeted at $14 million prior to final approval, but council had to increase the budget by $6.4 million due to inflation.
