The dream of building an indoor soccer turf and gymnastics facility in Williams Lake is still in the works, said proponents of the project during a recent committee of the whole meeting with city council and staff.
“We have a grant from the Cariboo Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition for $80,000 and will be putting out a request for proposals for a basic concept design,” said Kelly Goertz of the Cariboo Chilcotin Gymnastics Association who is working with the Williams Lake Youth Soccer Association on the project.
Goertz said they are looking at Comer Park as a possible location for the facility.
“On city recommendation, we did some site surveys as far as what it would cost for service, just to get sewer and water on, and the three sites we looked at were actually very similar,” she said. “It’s the next step where things start to get more pricey.”
The TRU site, she added, is quite central, but it is also already very flat and eliminates some of the costs of moving dirt around.
“We do have the support of the project in general from Dr. Ray Sanders from TRU and we’ve talked about the possibility of sharing things such as a parking lot in the distant future,” Goertz said. “It would be an ideal compromise for us because the nearby school’s peak hours and our hours will be directly opposite and we could maybe get rid of the congestion on Western Avenue as far as having all those people parked along the road.”
Mayor Walt Cobb said there has to be parking as part of the project because there is already problems there with congestion.
“There’s no room on the street to park, but that’s part of the plan and what you will have to look at,” Cobb said.
Curt Levens, who attended the meeting on behalf of the soccer association, said they haven’t ruled out any sites.
“I think we are just looking for a site that will work for us,” he added.
At its regular meeting Tuesday, council, who said they are in favour of the project, appointed Coun. Scott Nelson to be council’s liaison and Coun. Craig Smith as the alternate for the project.