Editor:
At the outset of our mandate from District of Vanderhoof Council to research the feasibility of having an aquatic center constructed in Vanderhoof we anticipated that the process to glean information and disseminate our findings to taxpayers to garner support for the pool would be a timely process and even today after more than two years we get new ideas that will help us to decide what we recommend for the final function and design of the facility. We continue to welcome ideas that will help us to achieve an aquatic center for the best value.
Our decision to employ PERC (experienced pool construction and design consultants) to conduct a feasibility study provided us with information that assisted us to: 1) develop a design based on needs arising from community input (questionnaire and public meetings) and 2) develop a plan to fund the capital and operational aspects of the project (employing historic data from other northern and remote communities). Initially we distributed a questionnaire to determine the functions that would be preferred in an aquatic center and together with public meetings conducted by PERC we determined there should be elemental functions (lap pool, leisure pool, hot tub, etc.) however, other functions were recognized as potential additions depending on costs (we asked the consultant to identify and cost other functions such as slide and spray so we could add/delete functions based on final cost matched to funds available for construction).
We invite you to view our proceedings, the PERC study, etc. at: http://www.vanderhoof.ca/District/Council/Council_committees_pool.html
The revenue/cost model that we are using was developed by PERC using historic information from similar aquatic centers in similarly populated areas assuming understated revenue and overstated costs because we wanted to be conservative for the benefit of taxpayers. If there is uncertainty about how much this will cost you it is because of our apprehension about misinforming you and again we are focusing on being conservative in all our estimates. In the near future we will be able to illustrate to individual taxpayers based on their personal assessment the estimated tax costs and the assumptions we used to arrive at those costs.
While we propose to build the Aquatic Center in Vanderhoof it is very much a regional facility and we have involved Regional District Areas C, D & F, District of Fort St James, Village of Fraser Lake and District of Vanderhoof in our information gathering and dissemination. We require the support of these electoral areas to make this project work and we trust they will initiate a referendum in November to get the support of their communities to approve the funding plans after which we can start seeking capital funding to construct the Aquatic Center.
Paul Stewart
Aquatic Center Committee