Thunder Bay City Council will be holding informal talks on options for the indoor turf facility at Chapples Park.
To start the meeting Monday night, City Manager Norm Gale made a statement indicating that a meeting will be held within the next few weeks, though no firm date was given.
The meeting will be able to be viewed publicly, as per a normal council meeting, but no voting or decisions will take place.
At-large councillor Aldo Ruberto previously said the get together would involve options for the facility and how it could look. He tells us options include hangars, bubbles or permanent structures, and, potentially at different locations.
The Full Statement From City Manager Norm Gale
The decision earlier this month to not award the tender to the Tom Jones Corporation was ratified last Monday by a vote of 7-5.
The overall project is ratified, as council approved in principle, a multi-use indoor facility at Chapples Park back on July 22, 2019, which included pre-construction site engineering and applications for funding.
“This was as the result of the presentation of Report 86/2019 at Committee of the Whole,” indicates City Clerk Krista Power. “It is this decision that made this project at this location be included in the city’s infrastructure priority list. Further decisions confirm this direction such as Report 150/2019 that awarded the design contract to Stantec on November 4, 2019.”
The original funding from the city for the facility was pegged between $30 million to $40 million, but council heard earlier this month that that the number had ballooned to $46 million dollars, which includes $8.8 million in interest payments on a $16.6 million dollar debenture.
Breaking Down the Funds
- An approximately $16.6 million dollar debenture
- $8.8 million interest on the debenture loan
- Just over $15 million from a dedicated reserve fund
- $1.6 million in MAT tax revenues
- $3.3 million from the Renew Thunder Bay Reserve Fund
- $300,000 from FedNor
Local groups weighed in on the March 8th decision with the President of Soccer Northwest maintaining that this project, which is seven years in the making and counting, isn’t dead in the water.
The search for a new facility was spurred on following the collapse of the Sportsdome on the CLE Grounds in a November 2016 snowstorm.
It threw the soccer community into chaos since both men’s and women’s clubs were forced to cancel their seasons because there was no place to play.
