Grand Opening of the Gordon R. Snow Community Centre/Fire Station 45

HRM - Come celebrate your new Community Centre and Fire Station 45.  Enjoy facility tours, activities, games, face painting, music, refreshments and more! Saturday,October 4 2pm-4pm at 1359 Fall River Rd

Background
Halifax Regional Municipality, in consultation with the community of District 2 (Lakeview, Waverley, Windsor Junction, Fall River, Fletcher’s Lake, Wellington, Grand Lake, Oakfield & HRM’s Enfield), are now constructing a Community Recreation Centre to accommodate the recreational needs of the community.

The new Recreation Centre will be part of a 38,000 square foot combined Gordon R. Snow Community Centre / Zone 4 Fire Station-45. In addition to improved fire and rescue services, when completed, this facility will enhance community recreational opportunities, encourage health and wellness, and provide a much needed space for community activities.

Recreation operations are currently housed in a retro-fitted two room schoolhouse. This centre is not sufficient and is not fully serving the needs of the community. The new multi-use facility will replace this former two-room schoolhouse (estimated age in excess of 45 yrs) converted 20+ years ago.

Consulting the Community

Consultation with key stake holders began at the initial stages of the project and has been an integral part of the ongoing process.  An extensive community consultation and needs assessment was conducted through the contracting of Environova Planning Group Inc. The study, released July 31, 2001, identified the need to replace the existing undersized Fall River Recreation Centre with a new multi-use facility for District Two residents within their community.

The Indoor Recreation Facility Master Plan was commissioned by Halifax Regional Council February 2003 in recognition of the need to develop a strategic approach to the provision of indoor recreation facility services. The goal of the project was to identify indoor recreation facility needs, develop facility priorities incorporating HRM’s demographics and growth patterns, determine which indoor recreation facilities should be maintained, reconditioned, or retired and where new facilities should be built in a coordinated recreation master plan over the next 15 years.

To provide public consultation for the indoor facility master plan a  public meeting was held at Lockview High School on November 24, 2003. The meeting was well attended with people coming from the Fall River area in particular.

HRM Indoor Recreation Facilities Master Plan was approved by Regional Council in June 2004, recommends that the existing District 2 Recreation Facility be replaced.

To broaden the community input and to have a committee whose sole purpose was the new recreation facility, the responsibility for collaboration with HRM shifted to an advisory committee in January of 2005.  All eight area ratepayers associations and two youth representatives within District 2 are represented on the advisory committee. Members are tasked to consider the community as whole as they influence the design process and operational phases of the new facility.  Committee members are also the liaison between the committee and their respective community groups.

Recreation staff has also been involved in the design process and have met with the architects on numerous occasions to ensure their operational needs are met.

From - http://www.halifax.ca/facilities/District2/