GUYSBOROUGH: Municipal council is taking the next step in establishing a new recreation facility for the area.
Warden Vernon Pitts said the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) will issue a call for tenders for the proposed Chedabucto Lifestyle Complex facility sometime this month.
He said he would like to see responses shortly thereafter and award it before the end of the spring.
“We’ve already made our [funding] pitch to the province and the federal government,” said Pitts.
“It was received very positively.”
Pitts said the municipality is hoping the provincial, and federal governments will each cover one-third of the approximately $10.92 million cost of the facility, to go along with the MODG’s one-third.
“Our council thinks that’s very fair,” said the warden.
“We should be judged no differently.”
If there is no federal or provincial funding and council still wants to move ahead with the plan, Pitts said the municipality “if necessary… we can build it on our own, even if we had to borrow money.”
The warden said he would like to hear from the province and federal governments before April 1.
In May, council voted to spend $60,000 on early site preparation on the proposed Chedabucto Lifestyle Complex across from the Chedabucto Education Centre/Academy and adjacent to the existing tennis courts.
The proposed facility would include a refrigerated skating trail, a shinny rink, an artificial turf soccer field with a four-lane running track, the Drysdale Softball field, a community building housing the Chedabucto Fitness Centre, community meeting/event spaces, Recreation Department office space, an elementary-sized gymnasium, and a home for the Guysborough Options for Adaptive Living Society (GOALS).