The City and CRD are hoping to expand the change rooms at the Cariboo Memorial Complex arenas.
At its regular meeting Tuesday, city council approved a grant application to Northern Development Initiative Trust for change room expansions in both arenas after receiving a report from the Central Cariboo/City of Williams Lake Joint Committee.
If successful, the funding would be used for development of a design and costing of the project.
Updating the change rooms is long overdue, Coun. Laurie Walters said.
“We spent a lot of time the pool, now we are moving our focus to the ice side.”
The funding would be through NDIT’s Capital Investment Analysis program to help with the cost of planning.
Council also approved that the Central Cariboo Recreation budget be amended to allocate up to $20,000 toward the costing of the project if necessary.
In a report prepared in March 20, 2018 for the joint committee the director of community services Geoff Paynton noted the lack of adequate change rooms and storage space for the two arenas has been identified by user groups as a priority.
“In addition to these immediate needs, should a Junior Hockey team ever locate in Williams Lake an appropriate office space and dedicated dressing room would be required,” Paynton noted.
Paynton said while the pool was being built there was lots of work being done on the arena, but now the focus can be on capital expenditures.
“If we get the grant it will be for concept costing, but something that would allow us if a grant ever popped up in the future, it would allow us to get an application in quickly,” he said. “Grants sometimes give you three weeks to get them in and you’re never ready because you need months of work to get ready.”
Applying to NDIT for this round, doesn’t mean the change rooms will be expanded any time soon, but if the plan is completed they will be ready.