A recreational needs assessment will be taking place in Estevan this year.
Estevan city council selected Altwest Communications of Saskatoon to carry out the assessment for $27,815 at Monday night’s meeting. Altwest was one of 12 companies to respond to a request for proposals for a bid.
Rod March, the manager of parks and facilities for the city, said city council asked him to send out a request for proposals in September to see how much it would cost for the assessment
“At the time the submissions were put to council, it was simply council’s decision to put it off at that time. But now they’re resurrecting this again, and asked me to follow through with it,” said March.
While the bids were as high as $145,000, March estimates the median bid was in the $40,000-$45,000 range.
He still has to approach Altwest to ensure they will enter into a contract for the work and at the price provided, since it’s been four months since the bid was submitted. If not, March will go back to council and tell them that since the bid was made in September, prices have changed.
Altwest, who is an expert in collecting data, will study the amenities the city has, including parks, open spaces, facilities and much more, and the catchment area of the patrons who are regular users.
“It’s not just user groups within the city who have a voice in saying what’s the next thing that council should invest in. What this is, is taking a look at exactly who’s using it, when they’re using it, how many people are using it, and what they’re using, and what we need, rather than what just one particular user group wants.”
The firm will do workshops and community forums to obtain feedback and input, and research social and demographic trends impacting parks and recreation facilities, based on expected long-term trends.
“They can put those in logarithms in and come up with ideas on to what’s the next thing we should build here,” said March.
At the same time, there’s no guarantee that their recommendation will happen.
This isn’t just about whether to build a third arena or a field house in the community, he said. Nor is it an economic impact assessment of building a facility.
“There’s all kinds of data and statistics out there across Canada on … per capita how much ice surface you have, and it’s pretty easy to find that information,” said March. “What they need to do is compile it, and compile what we have, and then meet with all of the user groups and different people so we can organize something and say ‘We have the data. This is what’s recommended for the next potential facility.”
Based on the data that has to be collected, March expects it take six months for Altwest to complete the study.
