The District of Port Hardy’s multiplex/pool project is still hanging in limbo due to grant funding.
In a brief interview over the phone, Acting Mayor Dennis Dugas said the project “all depends on getting the grant money we applied for,” before requesting the Gazette speak to Chief Administrative Officer Allison McCarrick for more details while Mayor Hank Bood is away on vacation.
McCarrick confirmed the District has “contacted UBCM ( Union of British Columbia Municipalities) who are administering the grant application process and we have been told that grant awards, if successful, will likely happen in the late fall.”
She added this means the district is “in a holding pattern as far as a construction date. Council has discussed all the feedback from the community with regards to the various options for the new pool and the existing pool space once it is closed.”
Among the options discussed by council were a new skateboard park, the pool having an extra lane, a larger pool deck which would allow for a bigger slide, and a completed mezzanine overlooking the pool.
“Council is working very hard at promoting this project on a political level for grant funding and also with the private sector for donations,” McCarrick said. “We would all like this project to evolve a little faster but with a little patience, a little luck and hard work it will become a reality.”
Regarding whether the District will again request financial support for the project from the Regional District of Mount Waddington, McCarrick said that “Within their 2018 budget deliberations, the Regional District of Mount Waddington will be taking another look at the request from the District of Port Hardy.”