“Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure to introduce to you, Lloydminster Place.”
Mayor Gerald Aalbers Monday February 14th unveiled the conceptual designs as the City begins a community wide conversation about the proposed new events arena to replace the aging Civic Centre.
Gathered at City Hall for the livestream were sporting stakeholders including GM and head coach of the Lloydminster Bobcats Nigel Dube, Lloydminster Minor Hockey Association GM Dean Stark and Al Rogan Athletics director at Lakeland College.
Aalbers said that the present price tag for the proposed events facility is 51 million dollars. He indicated that they will be looking to Alberta, Saskatchewan and the federal governments to assist with funding. He encouraged the community to have their say during the engagement period which runs to March with the possibility for extension as the community begins to have input, Aalbers says.
“What are you looking for as a community inside an events centre as this? We hope to host concerts and other events that will fit our community that can’t be held somewhere else in the community. So there’s a lot of opportunities here and maybe somebody is thinking of a question that hasn’t been asked yet and we are hoping that those come out.”
Aalbers says this will allow the city planners to look at any angle that they may be missing, as they try to cover all the bases. He underscored that the project would need the support of taxpayers and businesses and addressed the concerns of the undertaking.
“There’s always that fear of can we tackle this. We had that fear with the Wastewater Treatment Plant. We are still moving forward. We have not completed that project yet. This is not going to be built in one day, one week or one year. So we are on it for the long haul.”
He added they have Council support and as well, the commitment of groups that are going to use the new facility.
Lloydminster Bobcats GM Nigel Dube looked at the prospect of having a premier facility from the vantage point of being able to attract more talent, allow greater access and to bid on hosting more provincial and national events.
“This is going to help us in our recruitment of players, not only in Alberta, western Canada but across North America as well. We have great support throughout our city, throughout our province that come in and watch us play. For this modern day facility to be able to have all ages attend and watch those games is going to be huge for us, as moving forward as an organization. This also allows us to put in provincial bids, western bids and national bids to be able to host them in our community and at this facility which we can’t wait to be able to do that.”
Residents can have their say by taking the online survey. The initial survey period is slated until March 5th.
More updates can be found at www.lloydminsterplace.ca.
