But identifying community needs it just an early and preliminary step in a long process. Identifying needs is one thing, determining feasibility is another.
Still, the information is useful should an expansion of the Mariners Centre property ever take place in future years. The community recreational needs assessment was carried out for the Mariners Centre, which has undertaken the process as part of an effort to shape a long-term development plan for the property.
The results of the recent needs assessment and community consultation will be detailed at a public meeting at the Mariners Centre on Tuesday, Aug. 11 at 7 p.m. Consultant Jim Morgensten of dmA Planning & Management Services will present the needs assessment findings to the public, which are outlined in both a Mariners Centre Planning Context Report and a Mariners Centre Recreational Needs Assessment.
The needs assessment process involved a public meeting; interviewers and surveys with community stakeholders, Mariners Centre user groups and local recreational and sports groups and organizations; and a public survey.
A section of one of the finalized reports reads:
“Our analysis indicates the need for the following facilities in the Yarmouth area to adequately address the community’s recreational needs. These facilities could be developed as an expansion of the Mariners Centre.
• A contemporary aquatic centre – a 25m, six lane pool with training, instructional, recreational and therapeutic components.
• A gymnasium and additional multipurpose space, if located in conjunction with a new aquatic facility and supported by enhanced programming and community development activities.
• A replacement for the existing curling facility.
The assessment also says, “If the Mariners Centre is expanded, either with new facilities or with replacements for existing facilities in the community, the development will be consistent with trends in Nova Scotia and throughout Canada. Many communities are decommissioning older recreation infrastructure and moving from stand-alone single purpose facilities to large centralized recreation complexes.”
But, the assessment notes, this leads to operational and management considerations, particularly when it comes to an aquatic centre and the YMCA, since the YMCA would be seen as the logical operator of such a centre. Whether YMCA operations and components could exist in two locations – downtown and the Mariners Centre – or instead be centralized at the Mariners Centre are all discussions that would have to be held. The recreational needs assessment goes into a lot of detail over the considerations that would exist.
Likewise pros and cons of replacing the existing aging curling facility at the Mariners Centre would also need to ironed out.
The Mariners Centre has stated the idea behind expanding the property would be to enhance and improve community recreational offerings, not to negatively impact existing ones.
Rick Allwright, who is president of the Yarmouth Curling Club and has acted as the co-chair of the steering committee for the needs assessment says, “The needs assessment process has been an eye opening experience, the report identifies many of the needs that were mentioned at an initial stakeholder meeting in October 2014.”
The Aug. 11 public meeting will be an opportunity for stakeholders and others to ask questions about the process and how these decisions were made. The full report is available on the Mariners Centre website and a limited number of print copies will be available at the meeting.
Click here to read Mariners Centre Planning Context Report.
Click here to read Mariners Centre Recreational Needs Assessment.
“This is the first step in the process for determining the future of the Mariners Centre and we will now work with the stakeholders involved to determine our next steps,” says Gil Dares, manager of the Mariners Centre and the other co-chair of the steering committee.
The cost of the needs assessment was $28,000. Fifty per cent of that cost was being covered by the Department of Health and Wellness, with the rest of the cost covered by the town and municipality of Yarmouth, who are the owners of the Mariners Centre.
As mentioned, the needs assessment is only a preliminary step of this process. One of the next steps, as laid out by the consultants in the needs assessment report, is to complete a feasibility study to determine the financial feasibility and costs of building and operating more recreational facilities at the Mariners Centre. It's been stated that before that ACOA would perhaps provide funding for the feasibility study.
