Residents probably won’t go to the polls this year to decide on adding another arena and walking track to the Castlegar and District Community Complex.
A staff report on the project provided to the recreation commission this week noted that when the timeline was laid out in March, “several key milestones” needed to be met for the referendum to coincide with local government elections in October.
The “timeline was noted to be very tight and that any deviation in the schedule would put the October referendum timeline in jeopardy,” wrote Trisha Davison, the Regional District of Central Kootenay’s general manager of community services.
She said a number of steps are now behind schedule. Something called an owners statement of requirements was originally expected March 14, but that document remains in final review. A request for qualifications to potential builders was supposed to go out April 20, but it has also been tied up in a legal review. The RDCK now hopes to issue that request through BC Bid by the end of May.
The project was expected to move on to a request for proposals stage on May 25. The process is now expected to close at the end of June, with a report recommending award of a contract to come before the rec commission in July.
All of that pushes public engagement and a referendum past October. Staff suggested holding a referendum in November or December would be too close to the election and face challenges due to holidays. They said holding a vote in January still wouldn’t provide enough time to do the necessary public engagement.
“Overall, a referendum window from mid-February to early March is considered a more realistic and achievable option,” Davison wrote. That would allow public engagement to start this fall and ramp up in January, she said.
“We knew from the start it was a very aggressive timeline,” rec commission chair Brian Bogle said in an interview, “but that didn’t mean we weren’t frustrated that it was going be pushed back.”
Bogle emphasized the commission’s frustration is with the process, not with the RDCK staff.
“The staff is doing an incredible job. There’s numerous people working on this. They’re absolutely doing their best, but there are steps that need to be done in the process. And they just take time, unfortunately.”
Bogle said while there remains some slim hope a referendum might be held this year, it isn’t looking very promising. A standalone vote will come with additional costs as well as concerns that voter turnout will be lower, Bogle added.
He said the commission is eager to move the project forward, as directors are asked about it regularly, “and we don’t want to lose that excitement and enthusiasm.”
Bogle said they asked this week if there was anything they could do to speed things up and received assurances that staff are “working diligently on it.”
In February, the RDCK awarded a $180,000 contract to HMCA Architecture and Design to work on the project.
It’s expected the referendum will ask residents to approve borrowing up to $15 million, although the true cost of the new arena and walking track are estimated at $19 million to $29 million. The RDCK is hoping to defray some of the costs by awarding naming rights to whomever wins the design-build contract.
The referendum, whenever it is held, will involve residents of the City of Castlegar and neighbouring rural Area J, but not Area I. RDCK staff say even if it is approved, construction isn’t expected to begin until six months to a year afterward, pushing it to late 2027 or 2028.
The second sheet of ice would replace the Pioneer Arena, which was demolished last year.
