New Dawn Developments officially broke ground on Tuesday to begin construction on the new Cranbrook Indoor Sports Facility at Balment Park.
Tuesday’s breaking ground hasn’t been without its challenges, as the facility was debated by Cranbrook City Council on several occasions. Before construction could begin, the facility needed approval, the Cranbrook BMX track had to be reconstructed and moved to accommodate for the new sports dome, and many other hoops and hurdles to jump through.
Regardless of prior circumstances, one thing is true, the Cranbrook Indoor Sports Facility is now under construction.
“It’s definitely been a long journey,” said Chuck Downie, a member of the KEYSA (Kootenay East Youth Soccer Association) Board of Directors. “The vision started to come together maybe five years ago and Mike Robinson, whose kind of been the main spearhead behind all of this, he looked at a couple of different facilities in the Okanagan and in Calgary and it looked like it was viable.”
KEYSA will operate the Cranbrook Indoor Sports Facility, which will be open for use by numerous sporting and non-sporting groups upon completion.
“The vision’s always been to have a place where people can participate year-round,” Downie told MyEastKootenayNow.com.
Whether is baseball, seniors groups, lacrosse, football, school groups and others, the Indoor Sports Facility will be open to the community.
Downie said the project wouldn’t have been possible without many volunteers and significant funding contributions from business and residents to the Community Foundation of the Kootenay Rockies (CFKR), as well as grant funding from Columbia Basin Trust, and the RDEK.
“A lot of different people were involved in it to get it to the point where it is now,” said Downie. “With the money we have now, we can get it built.”
The project is budgeted at approximately $1.5-million, with some fundraising still needed. Downie said that remaining funding will be for ongoing maintenance but the money they have secured, more than $1.3-million can see the sports dome built and complete by the fall.
For now, Downie said change rooms and washrooms will be established at the Cranbrook Curling Club, with a bigger vision for future add-ons to the facility.
“You sort of have to scale your vision for what you can start with. I mean it would be great to have a clubhouse and maybe that stuff will come later,” said Downie. “Using the Curling Rink for the washrooms and stuff is going to make a big difference because that was a big-ticket item on the bill.”
All-in-all, Downie said KEYSA is excited to break ground and begin construction on the sports dome.
“The main thing is just to have a year-round facility where people can participate. It’s going to be the schools – very close to two of the bigger schools in town, to be able to go there in the winter time and play sports, we can use it for the indoor market, things like that. I think once it’s built, it’s going to be one of those things – if you build it they will come – there’s going to be a lot of different aspects to this maybe that we haven’t even explored yet that it’s going to be useful for.”
KEYSA fully anticipates the facility will be complete and usable by October 31st, 2020.
