By Thia James

VIDEO: Kinsmen water slides’ repair to go ahead; ‘big dig’ coming to P.A.

Jan 30, 2015 | 5:48 AM

Mayor Greg Dionne’s third State of the City Address contained an important announcement about the water slides at the Kinsmen Water Park: the Kinsmen Club of Prince Albert will be taking over the ‘Save our Water Slides’ campaign.

It will no longer be the City of Prince Albert applying for grants or seeking funding within the community – the Kinsmen Club will do that for the water park that bears its name.

It is doing so at a point where the campaign is now up to $70,000 shy of the $260,000 needed to rebuild the water slides.

Mayor Greg Dionne said the City has been negotiating with the Kinsmen Club because the park and the water park both bear the club’s name. He said the club had other fundraising-related “things” on their plate.

“So we just met with them and they said ‘ok, we’ll take it over and finish it off.’ So that’s a big plus to get that open,” he said.

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Dionne said the club will be contributing funds and it will also be going to the community, and other donors, to raise the remaining money needed.

The four main slides at the water park were closed to the public for the 2014 season after the City received an engineering report that found safety issues with the fibreglass and steel structures.

The City then put its community services department in charge of managing the campaign to save the water slides.

The water park was also a finalist in the 2014 TSN/Kraft Celebration tour, which garnered $25,000 for the campaign.

And in order to avoid a recurrence of this particular situation, the City plans to create a reserve fund that would be dedicated to paying for repairs to the slides, should it be needed in the future.

During the address, Dionne told the audience that, for the first-time ever in Prince Albert, a fee would be put into place that would raise the funds for this repair reserve.

The repair project went to the request for proposals stage recently, and after the address Dionne revealed that the contractor selected to undertake the project and when it will begin will be in a report set to be brought forward during the next cycle of council. Council’s approval of the choice of contractor would be needed before that part of the project proceeds.

Dionne said the work to take the water slides down doesn’t have to wait until the summer. This is because most of what they’d be dismantling would end up in the garbage, he said.

“So we can start the work earlier than summer, because we want to get it open as soon as we can.”

Other major State of the City announcements

Prince Albert residents can expect to hear three major economic development-related announcements in 2015, according to Dionne.

One of the projects, he said, will be a “huge” residential project that will involve infill lots. He added it will also spin off something needed in the city, but he did not reveal what that is.

“And this infill project will pay it, so that I don’t have to increase taxes to get this project done,” Dionne said.

He did provide details about a major roadwork project that will affect traffic leading to the Diefenbaker Bridge on Second Avenue West.

Work to replace the 114-year old water pipes under Second Avenue West from 15th Street West to the foot of the bridge will begin this summer. This will result in closures along Second Avenue West, but part of the plan is to have crews work 16 hours a day to finish the repairs and repaving. The project has not yet been tendered.

“It will be like if the bridge is closed,” Dionne said.  

Calling it “the big dig,” he said the eastern half of the road, nearest Gateway Mall, will remain open. The pipes are located on the west side of Second Avenue West.

He said the goal for long weekends is to have two lanes open leading to the bridge and one lane open for traffic coming off of it. It would be reversed, with two lanes of traffic coming off of the bridge and one lane leading to it at the end of the long weekend.

“So, we do know it’s going to be a problem, but we do have to fix it, and we’ve been putting it off. Those are the oldest pipes in the city. And they’ve served their time, 114 years old.”

The City plans a similar water pipe replacement/repaving project for Central Avenue in the downtown area, but that is not expected to happen before 2016.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames