Another question mark has been removed from the future of the Flin Flon Aqua Centre as an effort to revamp the facility now has a committee behind it.
Tricia Tetlock has put her name forward as chairperson for the committee. Joining Tetlock are vice-chairperson Kara Plamondon, treasurer Corey Thompson and secretary Lindsay Shirran.
“Absolutely I’m very happy with where things are going,” said city recreation manager Mike Dubreuil. “The project is ready to move full-steam forward.”
A meeting held Tuesday at the council chambers of city hall was the third attempt at forming a committee, as two previous gatherings garnered little attendance.
“The turnout was better than previously, which was nice,” said Dubreuil.
The Flin Flon Aqua Centre project is able to move forward as subcommittees will later be formed for fundraising, grant writing and public relations – to name a few of the tasks.
Volunteers also put their names forward to head subcommittees Tuesday as Viki Armstrong will head fundraising, Sara Lawrence will head grant writing and Marsha Reeves and Phyllis Kozar will work as volunteer coordinators.
Christa Carmichael and Karen MacKinnon will share responsibilities for public relations while Ken Pawlachuk will lead the technical committee.
“But there are always more jobs than people,” said Dubreuil. “And we’re always looking for people to join this committee.”
Dubreuil says the executive committee, currently made up of four individuals, will later look to add more positions.
And while an executive committee was formed along with heads of five subcommittees, Dubreuil had hoped for a more diverse turnout.
“We didn’t get the community representation we would have like on our subcommittees and executive,” said Dubreuil, pointing out the majority of those in the room were from Flin Flon.
“But we did discuss ideas on a community liaison subcommittee,” he said. “We would have people from those committees working with the executive to help open those areas of dialogue.”
Dubreuil says the next step for the project to move forward is to come up with a guideline of benchmarks to be met.
The benchmarks include fundraising, grant writing, and opening dialogue and discussion with the community and its stakeholders.
The next meeting date has not yet been set, though Dubreuil suspects it will be toward the end of summer or in the fall.
“There’s lots of work to do…to make this a reality. I’m very happy that everyone was willing to take on some responsibility,” said Dubreuil. “This is a pivotal project on large scale that impacts a wide region.”
