County gets rec assessment update

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Edmonton-based RC Strategies approached Wheatland County Council with their rec assessment findings for the area, five months after council requested an assessment to be conducted.
The assessment focused on community engagement, and on how many of the Wheatland County communities that own their facilities are putting them to use. The buildings that were noted were the six community halls owned and operated by community associations: one ice arena (Gleichen and District Agricultural Society), two curling rinks (Gleichen and Carseland), Severn Dam that’s owned by the province, and the Gleichen Library. In addition to these facilities there are still the ones that exist in the villages and Strathmore.
Marcy Field of the Community Enhancement Regional Board (CERB) was on hand for the presentation and liked where the county was heading with the report.
“They’re looking at the long-range needs of the community,” said Field.
“So coming in and having that assessment done, really provides the background information that they need, to determine plans for 10-20 years from now.”
With CERB being in the advisory role, they can now take that report and bring back recommendations from their board meeting that will be held in August.
“One of the wonderful things about this group is just how they work together and listen to each other,” said Field.
“I think it’ll be a great conversation and it gives us information that we were lacking. It will really give us a better foundation for our discussion.”
Field felt that the needs were noticeable right across the county and not just limited to one area.
“We see that in the number of applications that are put forward in community enhancement funding,” said Field.
“We see that we had $1.2 million in requests for various projects across the county but we only had approximately $400,000 to be able to meet those fees.”
The most notable indoor recreational facilities that could be more available or upgraded that people were surveyed for were the walking and running tracks at 44 per cent and gym-type spaces at 30 per cent. The top outdoor facilities were the walking trails systems at 41 per cent and campgrounds at 28 per cent.
Wheatland County Communications Officer Lisa Bastarache said now that the report is out they will have to clarify some items in the package, but she feels they are going in the right direction.
“This is mostly for research so we know where we’re at with everything and then we’ll have together and do some planning,” said Bastarache.
“The next step will be to actually meet with all these communities associations that we’re talking about. The individual groups within the county and see what they’re looking for in specific, and come back and figure out what fits into the budget and what works with our planning.”
She added that some of the information needed to be updated in the report and RC Strategies is going to revise it.