COLIN KERR
Staff Reporter
BARRY’S BAY – The Madawaska Valley Town Council dealt with a lot at its long December 1st meeting, but the biggest matter was undoubtedly the issue of the PJ. Yakabuski Community Centre.
The Structural Adequacy Review was finally ready to be presented to the council by Recreation and Community Development Coordinator Stephanie Plebon. The report was encouraging in that it indicated that there were no structural concerns with the recreation centre that might be expected to plague it over the next 5-10 years, which means that the pricey renovations required of the Centre will not be even pricier:
“As stated in the report the Arena’s long span structural members were found to be in good condition with localized elements found to be in fair condition. The roof structure and snow load assessment was also undertaken and in their opinion based on the findings from their visit there is no current need to upgrade the existing roof structure to meet the current building code until a time where a more detailed analysis is required.”
That was the good news. Plebon also touched on the matter of the $100,000 COVID Resilience Fund grant application, about which she informed the council at the previous meeting. In comparison with the roughly $1.5 million that the council calculated was required for the more pressing aspects of the rehabilitation of the centre, this grant money seemed to pale.
The council nevertheless discussed the grant and how to integrate the money into the project. Plebon, who had been on a conference call about the fund immediately before the December 1st meeting, indicated that the money could be integrated into the large project in any number of ways.
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