Residents brainstorm about core neighbourhood rec centre

Residents in Saskatoon's inner city got their chance to speak out about a proposed recreation centre for the area Tuesday night.

Designed to serve the King George, Riversdale and Pleasant Hill neighbourhoods, the centre is still in the very early planningstages.

Right now, the City of Saskatoon, YMCA and Saskatoon Tribal Council are working together to see if the project will be feasible.

They asked people who live in the area what they would like to see in a rec centre.

"A gymnasium, indoor skate park, swimming pool," said resident Vince Schroell. "Just a place to go to for working out or relaxation or something."

Others said having a place to take children is just as important.

"Good child care, of course, because I have a baby," said Danielle Wagar. "I'd also like to see a really nice volleyball court, somewhere where I can go spike some balls over the net."

The city's core neighbourhoods have often been seen as lacking in recreation facilities. That's something they hope the new centre will fix.

"I would like to see something like White Buffalo, in an expanded version," said youth worker Risa Downs."We offer loads of programs here, but we don't have the space or staff availability to run all the programs we want to run."

Organizers hope to have a working agreement in place by the end of the year. The project would then be designed, and a location would be mapped out.

If everything goes well, the project will be built in late 2018, at the earliest.