By Dan Archer
In the past five years, Curtis Nelson, president of Assiniboia’s Civic Improvement Association, has assisted in organizing a vital undertaking for the town and district. The association has been actively calling on local businesses, residents, people living in the region, as well as the local municipal governments in the surrounding districts, to help the group raise funds to build a new arena for the town and surrounding area. The association hopes to oversee the construction of the Civic Centre and skating rink, which is slated to begin by the spring of 2020. The future complex will be located inside the empty lot neighbouring the Prince of Wales Cultural and Recreation Centre. The existing Civic Centre is an important hub during the winters for ice skaters and hockey fans in Assiniboia. Throughout the year, the Civic Centre is also used for many popular events in town, such as the Red Coat Community Market held in September.
“Currently, we have $5 million raised for the project,” Nelson said. The costs for this undertaking should have a total price tag of $8-10 millionto replace the present facility built in 1956.The Assiniboia Civic Improvement Association hopes to apply for federal and provincial infrastructure government grants in the coming months, to raise more capital for this project to replace this 63-year-old structure for a newer and much-improved centre. “There shouldn’t be a lot of issues once we’ve picked our contractors – then away we go,” Nelson said.
On April 13, the Civic Improvement Association is holding a biennial Sportsman supper and auction at the Prince of Wales to raise more cash for the sports complex. Wrestler, mixed martial artist and former football player Brock Lesnar is scheduled to attend, along with Rod Pedersen – the former voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders on 620 CKRM and Marty McSorley, who played in the NHL from 1983-2000 in forward and defence positions.
On the weekend of January 12-13, five members of the association travelled to Saskatoon to tour Merlis Belsher Place, the modernized rink at the University of Saskatchewan. A side note: Belsher, originally from McCord and a law graduate of the university, donated $12.25 million in October 2016 to help fund a new arena at the U of S, to replace the aging Rutherford Rink. “As a group, we gained knowledge of what we want in our facility as well as the finer points of the design,” Nelson said, as he described what he and the other representatives from the Civic Improvement Association had learned after touring the rink at the university.
