By Dominic Abassi

Track and Field excited for future as City prepares to take over Rotary Bowl

Mar 30, 2017 | 12:39 PM

NANAIMO — School board trustees have signed off on the sale of Rotary Bowl and Serauxmen Stadium and user groups are now eager to plan for their future. 

Only the rubber stamp of the Ministry of Education is needed to finalize the sale of nearly 15 acres of land and the two rec facilities to the City of Nanaimo. The $4.1 million deal is expected to be put into action in June.

Earlier this week, Council directed staff to begin working on agreements with Nanaimo Minor Baseball and Nanaimo Track and Field Club.

“We’re really excited and we want to engage as soon as possible and keep the future bright,” Tyler Heisterman, president of the track and field club, said. “There are some specific things we like to have at the track for safety and the reasons of our club.”

The transfer of the facilities to the City will provide more stability for user groups and is expected to expand opportunities for infrastructure upgrades, according to parks and rec director Richard Harding.

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“There was uncertainty for a number of years of what was going to happen with the overall NDSS campus,” Harding said. “Both those organizations haven’t had formal agreements now for a number of years because of the facility planning the school board has gone through. This allows those groups to start looking at improvements.”

Harding said Serauxmen Stadium is the “natural place” to put lights, but that couldn’t happen while the school district owned it because they didn’t know if the stadium was going to be there. He said that’s something to look for by 2018.

A key part of the deal for Harding is the construction of a $2.4 million artificial turf field with lights between NDSS and the land being sold. The district and City will split the cost and Harding expected it to be ready for use by September.

“That provides a lot of amenities that have been pushed onto some other areas. That provides a lot of assurance for the school and academy programs…VIU I’m sure will put some more programs on there. That field alone will probably take 3,000 hours of school and community use.”

Harding said the addition of the turf field is consistent with the sports zone concept for the Third St. corridor.

He said discussion about a multi-use stadium at Rotary Bowl is a “long-term look,” something that couldn’t even have been discussed without the City taking it over. Harding said in the short-term he envisions more enhancements at Caledonia Park.

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi