For years the plot of land on the corner of Geikie Street and Pyramid Lake Road—commonly referred to as the exchange lands—sat idle, surrounded by a chain link fence. However, since construction began in May, Jasper’s director of operations, Bruce Thompson, contests that the town’s new multi-purpose field is on schedule and on budget.
The field is slated to be completed by the end of summer, however, Thompson said it won’t be open to the public until some time in 2017.
“We want to see how the field fairs in the winter and see what grows back in the spring,” Thompson said. “If there’s deficiencies in the spring then we’ll know what needs to be replaced. The municipality has to be 100 per cent satisfied before this opens.
“It’s like when you put a new lawn in your backyard—you probably want to baby it and nurse it for a little bit before you let your kids play on it.”
Once completed the field will be used for a variety of events from Canada Day festivities and the Dark Sky Festival, to Jasper in January and various sporting events.
“Lots of municipalities have these—this allows us to actually have some flexibility with our current sites and for our festivals to expand and for new ones to develop,” said Thompson, adding that major events in town will be divvied up between the new field and Centennial Park.
“There’s never enough space in town—we have such a limited space to hold events because we’re surrounded by the park, but we want to optimize the space that we do have.
“We don’t want to cater to just one group at a time, so that’s why this second field is so important.”
Once the new field is open, Centennial Field will be shut down for an undetermined amount of time to be resurfaced.
In August 2015, the federal government earmarked $187,500 to put toward the redevelopment of Centennial Field on the condition that the municipality would match those funds, bringing the total budget for the project up to $375,000.
With those funds, the municipality plans to redesign, excavate and reconstruct the field to improve its irrigation and drainage, as well as make the surface safe for users.
At the time, Yvonne McNabb, director of culture and recreation, told council that construction can’t begin until April 1, 2017 and it must be completed by December 2017 according to the requirements of the grant.
To protect both fields from over use, Thompson said some new maintenance rules will also be implemented once both fields are redone.
“There’s going to have to be a policy stating that the fields won’t be open in all weather conditions. As far as I know there have never been any field cancellations due to weather,” said Thompson, adding that both fields will also be watered and fertilized regularly. “The cost of these investments are too great to be overused—these fields need time to rest and recover from time to time.”
All of this work is being done at the expense of the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division (GYPSD), which in accordance to a 2011 land swap agreement, put aside $770,000 to remediate the land.
In May 2011, the municipality and GYPSD entered into a memorandum of understanding to exchange two parcels of land so the school division could build a new school.
The memorandum of understanding included swapping the town’s former Bowling Green, located on the corner of Bonhomme Street and Elm Avenue, for the parcel of land where the old school once stood with the condition the land would eventually become open recreational space and GYPSD would pay for the project.
In June of 2011, the community voted in favour of the land swap setting in motion the construction of the new joint school facility and the demolition of the old building.
The new school officially opened its doors in September 2014 and the old building was demolished a few months later.
To book the new field, Thompson said that responsibility will fall to the town’s cultural and recreational department.
“We’re currently working on a management plan that will allow us to accommodate all the interest for the field,” Thompson said.
Once completed, the field will include the addition of topsoil, sod and an irrigation system that will allow the turf to endure high traffic events. There will also be trees and shrubs planted around the field’s perimetres, as well as places for picnic tables.
Kayle Byrne
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