She is a familiar site around Red Deer but her age has been showing for quite some time so a makeover is the answer.
Great Chief Park was established in the 1980’s as part of the Urban Park program with sports being the main function of the park. The years have been taking their toll on this little gem in the city however.
“We knew that it was time that perhaps some efficiencies or upgrades or changes to it that would make it more effective for the user groups and easier for them to host events and activities and that kind of thing,” said Deb Comfort with the City of Red Deer.
About three years ago the concept enhancement plan was completed more than 30 user groups of Great Chief Park got together and brainstormed what was needed to make this place better. Those at the meeting knew right off the top there was no room for expansion but there were ideas for dressing up the place.
“We all recognized there were things that everybody wanted that would be the ‘nice to have’ but when we sat down but after leaving the meeting the groups were aware of what the budget was, what other groups needed and it was a good idea to all work together towards a final goal,” she said.
Emerging from that meeting was a plan to guide the city towards improvements at GCP and it was approved by council in 2012.
“With that plan the main changes were really to upgrade the sports field, football/soccer field to artificial turf. It was also an opportunity to move the speed skating oval out of Rotary Recreation Park,” said Comfort.
Other items on the to do list included expanded change rooms, washrooms, beer garden areas, better access for bussing, bus drop off lanes. The successful bid for the 2019 Canada Winter Games also shone the spotlight on this document given that speed skating was going to be a part of the games, she said.
“So with that we have successfully gone to council and got support to implement some of those plans in terms of a little bit more than $12.5 million dollars being reinvested into that facility over the next three to four years.”
The main issue was the field. It needed to be the best it could be but there were other aspects of the park which had to be solved.
“We also wanted to look at the special event opportunities on the sports field,” she said. “With the plan that’s coming there’s what we call armouring that has to go over the artificial turf for the ice to be able to sit on top of it and not crush the carpet. If that armouring can be reconfigured in a way it would allow for us to have outdoor concerts and events without wrecking the turf.”
Essentially the armouring would be covering the area where the speed skating oval would go, surrounding the field but should there be a concert booked then at least half the field could be protected with that same material.
The style of turf to go on the field was a part of the makeover discussion. There are several varieties which have different sub-surfaces and then you can choose from various lengths of grass and colours as well. Rest assured, it won’t be the indoor/outdoor patio carpet which was popular in the 1970’s.
“We’ll be going out to tender to make sure that’s all done in a transparent and open way and we know what our preferences are in terms of the type of turf format so we’re going to move forward with that.”
Suffice to say this turf will be a real game changer for the sports teams which use Great Chief Park.The sentiment was with a city of 100,000 people it was time Red Deer go into the game as far as replacing the grass with turf.
“It also allows us to have more practice time on it,” she said. “Grass is quite fragile so if it’s too dry or too wet and you start practicing and playing on it on a much more regular basis the turf disappears.”
The plan as it stands now would be to get this out for tender in the spring with work to begin in the fall. If that time line is followed then football teams in the city would need another location in order to host games. It’s a discussion which will be held shortly and may conclude by having the high school teams head to Lacombe and the bantam and peewee squads playing games at Legion Track next to Lindsay Thurber.
“In anticipation of that we’ve re-sodded and over seeded Legion Track to get it ready for extreme use,” she said but nothing has been confirmed at this point.
There are other upgrades being addressed at Great Chief Park which are not part of the Canada Winter Games requirements but this spring people will see activity down at the park.Users can look forward to the field being back on line by the fall of 2017 at the latest.
“I’m so excited this is finally moving forward. I know the sports field community is very happy and excited to see something happening with this turf. I know it’s been on their radar and wish list for a very long time,” she said. “We’re really fortunate to have the partnership and the opportunity to connect it to the winter games and to create a 12 month robust facility down there that the community can enjoy for years to come.”
We can’t wait for the big reveal.
