County approves Recreation Needs Assessment

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Wheatland County approved for the Edmonton-based RC Strategies to come into the area and do a Recreation Needs Assessment.
“It was approved on Feb. 3, so we’ll move forward with that project. It’ll provide needs assessment for recreation and leisure services. Whatever comes out of that report will be brought to council and recommendations to move forward with their findings,” said Alan Parkin, chief administrative officer. “It’s a new project, something that has come up in the last three months, in regards to doing this study.”
The company will come in and determine what the county needs recreationally. The assessment might be completed with Wheatland Further Education.
RC Strategies has immense experience in organizing strategies to provide an active Needs Assessment to determine what counties need to meet recreation facilities standards.
There will be four phases that the county will go through, and they are Phase 1: project orientation (1 week); Phase 2: research (8 weeks); Phase 3: engagement (11 weeks) and Phase 4: Recreation Needs Assessment (4 weeks).
The county is expected to get a report back by June to take into council to see what needs are necessary.
County Briefs
Councilor Rex Harwood brought forward to council an update on the building of a water treatment plant in Gleichen.
• He concluded that the approximate costs that retroact back to April 2014 will be $8.8 million plus $13.5 million that will include a raw water reservoir and a pipeline that will go from Standard to Gleichen.