Langdon’s recreation has bright future

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Hamlet of Langdon got approval from Rocky View County to go ahead with groundwork for a new recreation facility for the area.
Rocky View County funded $200,000, while the Rocky View School Division provided $300,000 for the groundwork.
“The site is going to be used for a high school as well as a recreation facility. The grant doesn’t go (just to) Langdon, that grant is for development of that field, which is in Langdon,” said Rolly Ashdown, Rocky View councilor.
“It’s a green field site, there’s been nothing on it before, and so when you have that you have to do a lot of engineering. If you have any wetlands on areas like that, then you have wetland compensation that has to be made and basically getting the site ready for something.”
Ashdown accredits the countless hours put in by community organizations to get the project off the ground.
“The Langdon Community Facility Group has been working on it for quite sometime.
The next thing that is going now is Phase 1 of getting the land, and Phase 2, which will be getting the land ready for something and that something could become the ball fields that everybody’s talking about,” said Ashdown. “In order to get that built, obviously they’re going to have to go into fundraising mode and get more dollars together to get there. Baseball is extremely popular, there’s over 20 adult teams and 200 kid teams.”
Langdon, being the third largest hamlet in Alberta, has had a rapid growth in population, and to accommodate the community, the county felt the demand for a facility needed to be met.
“It’s quite surprising that Langdon is growing so fast from a few hundred people in the 90s to 5,000 people now. When something grows that fast it’s pretty much impossible to anticipate how many are there,” said Ashdown.
“The problem with that there is no real recreational facilities there. So it’s a start of it needing hockey, baseball and soccer.”
The groundwork feedback has been positive so far.
“Every step is a good step, any closer you can get to having recreation facilities completed in any way shape or form is always good,” said Ashdown.
One resident sees the value of the facility, but not the fact that it is dedicated to just one sport.
“I think that anything that gets the project moving is great, but I believe there is a greater need for an indoor hockey arena, also being a hockey parent I’m obviously biased,” said Dmitri Voyevoda.
“I do see a rec centre as more people are realizing the value there.”
The county also put forth $40,000 towards an $80,000 upgrade to the Indus Recreation Centre.