Years ago several user groups who called Great Chief Park in Red Deer their home base met with city officials.
The idea was to bring together a sort of wish list for ways to improve on this little gem in the city.
Fast forward to 2017 and those groups are now eagerly waiting to see the finishing touches on the park which include items on that wish list.
“ Part of that plan was to put artificial turf down on the field here because we’ve had a lot of cancellations because of weather and field conditions,” said Curtis Martinek, Project Manager with the City of Red Deer.
Now with the 2019 Canada Winter Games hitting Red Deer the work at GCP has really ramped up the timeline to get this project done.
Along with the field turf GCP will see a new pavilion for coaches/media to watch games from, new dressing rooms and a speed skating oval.
The turf however was somewhat of a priority as Red Deer was behind the eight ball with so many other communities already with turf down.Budget was likely the reason it took so long to happen, said Martinek.
“ It is an expensive venture to put artificial turf down. It has a life expectancy of about ten years and we hope to get as much use out of it as possible.”
Sports teams will be the main users of course but during the year Martinek says the city will host some cultural events so a protective layer can be put down for marching bands or concerts.
Essentially it will make Great Chief Park a four season park for people to enjoy all year long, he said.
Minor football groups are anxiously waiting to use the park having had to bounce around to different venues while GCP is under construction.
“ It will probably open up later this fall,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we’ll get at least some playoffs in here.”
The speed skating oval needs to get done soon as well because every event during the Canada Winter Games needs to have a test event held this winter so there is some urgency there.
Given our fickle Alberta winters a definite topic of discussion was real ice versus artificial ice on the oval.
“The cost, I think was about $1.7 million for the infrastructure and that didn’t include the operating costs and as you can imagine if it got really warm we’d have to run that plant all the time.”
So real ice it is.The current oval in Rotary Park has been there for years with no issues to speak of at this point, said Martinek.
The goal is to have the project completed by this Christmas and then it’s wide open for use.
It’s going to be a great attraction in Red Deer and sports groups have a reason to be excited.
