From the Town of Blackfalds

The Town of Blackfalds is moving forward with the Arena and Library Expansion

The Town of Blackfalds is excited to announce that the Arena and Library Expansion project will be proceeding and shovels will be in the ground in June of 2020 with a completion date targeted for Spring of 2021.

At their May 26 regular meeting, Council voted 4 to 3 to approve the final and guaranteed maximum price of the $24.6M capital budget which includes $18 M for the arena (which includes a $1 M contribution by the Junior A team) and $6.6 M for the Library.

Over the last year, the Town participated in various engagement opportunities including public open houses and meetings with stakeholders, school boards, and other organizations. The consultations prompted changes and additions to be incorporated into the design to improve the functionality of the facility which also resulted in increased costs.

Town of Blackfalds Mayor Richard Poole is proud of the work that Administration and its contractors ACI Architects, Eagle Builders and Delnor Construction undertook in the last 2 months to review those areas where costs could be reduced to come up with a target value design, “I support this project for a number of reasons,” asserts Mayor Poole. “First of all, this will be an excellent value for our community when it is built. It will be second to none and I believe it will be a project our community will be proud of, and, as Councillor Taylor stated, it will ‘enhance business opportunities within our community.’ The Abbey Centre continues to receive praise and compliments from community members throughout Alberta and I am confident Blackfalds will duplicate that success with this facility.”

Mayor Poole added, “I am also excited about the opportunities that the AJHL will bring to the community. The new Library is going to be one of the largest in central Alberta and, for a community under 20,000, this will be an attraction that we will not only be extremely proud of, but given the provisions of the facility, will allow for progressive programming even in a post-COVID era. In addition, by awarding the construction contract to Eagle Builders, we are providing jobs for many central Alberta families. I am thrilled to be working with such great partners like Eagle Builders, Delnor and ACI with whom we have had a great relationship in the past.”

The guaranteed maximum price ensures that the Town will not pay any more than the $24.6M and therefore, if the cost of the project does go up, the risk will be to Delnor and Eagle Builders, and not the municipality. CAO Thompson echoed some of Council’s words, “We want to provide a high quality facility to our community similar to our past successful projects, and not have to cut corners.”

A gallery of final design concepts can be viewed on the Multi-Plex Arena web page at blackfalds.com/tourism-recreation/multi-plex-ice-arena.

A small ground breaking ceremony will take place on Friday June 19 and will celebrated by invitation only to ensure physical and social distancing.

If any organizations are interested in sponsorship, please see the sponsorship brochure at http://blackfalds.com/tourism-recreation/multi-plex-ice-arena.

Information from covid19stats.alberta.ca

Big news for Central Alberta as this region is reporting NO confirmed active cases of COVID-19.

The first stage of opening up the province has not had an adverse effect in Central Alberta.   While opening up the economy could very well result in a number of new cases, after two full weeks that has not happened!

Here’s the Central Alberta breakdown.  Locations are listed by the number of ‘active’ cases in each region.

• Red Deer City – 37 cases – 0 active
• Red Deer County – 15 cases – 0 active
• Mountain View County – 9 cases – 0 active
• Kneehill County – 4 cases – 0 active
• Ponoka County – 3 cases – 0 active
• Wetaskiwin City – 8 cases – 0 active
• Vermilion River County – 6 cases – 0 active
• Stettler County – 3 cases – 0 active
• Lacombe County – 3 cases – 0 active
• Camrose City – 2 cases – 1 death – 0 active
• Lacombe City – 2 cases – 0 active
• Beaver County – 2 cases – 0 active
• Clearwater County – 2 cases – 0 active
• City of Lloydminster – 1 case – 0 active
• Camrose County – 1 case – 0 active
• Minburn County – 1 case – 0 active
• MD of Wainwright – 1 case – 0 active

The “day and case status” graph below shows just how the situation in Alberta is improving drastically.  Just a month ago, there was an equal number of active and recovered cases.  Now there are only 400 active cases in the entire province.  Over 6,500 Albertans are considered recovered.

Central Alberta continues has been the least affected region in the province.   In fact, the number of confirmed cases was reduced by 1 from 99 to 98 in Central Alberta as Alberta Health deducted one of the cases from the County of Red Deer.   Here are the numbers from each zone.

Downtown Wednesday Market returning June 3!