Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Gordon Bell finally scores its green space for sports
Broadway and Portage Avenue Area where Gordon Bell wants to build a field. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)
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Gordon Bell High School's field of dreams has finally come true.
Education Minister Nancy Allan will be in Gordon Bell's senior gym today at 10 a.m. to announce that the province is spending $5.3 million to acquire a former car dealership on Portage Avenue from Canada Post and convert it into an athletic field and green space.
"We want to do some creative landscaping. We want to do some community involvement" in planning the design of the site, she said.
Allan expects the province and Winnipeg School Division would discuss the possibility of closing Borrowman Place, the small street which runs between the site and the school, though the street is not part of this morning's announcement.
Allan said that Canada Post would also be part of this morning's ceremony at Gordon Bell High School, and that it will announce the new location for a facility that the Crown corporation had planned to build on the Portage site.
"We have an agreement with Canada Post. We're going to purchase it for $3.8 million," Allan said.
The province will spend an additional $1.5 million to drain, fence, and lay sod on the property.
"There has been some discussion with the University of Manitoba, particularly the architecture department, and we're going to work with them on drainage and fencing," the minister said.
Allan said that the new field would become part of the Gordon Bell High School property after the deal closes Jan. 8. She was uncertain when the field would be ready for use.
The province is providing the money as a one-time capital grant, that is outside its annual capital budget for public schools, and which will not affect Winnipeg School Division's five-year capital priority list.
"This is over and above the priorities of Winnipeg School Division -- it won't bump any of their priorities," Allan said.
Students, grads, and community residents have been pushing for green space for the school, ever since word broke that Canada Post had acquired the former car dealership on Portage. MP Pat Martin (NDP-Winnipeg Centre) has been an enthusiastic booster, pestering the federal government to recognize the need for green space in the inner- city, and urging Ottawa to tell Canada Post to look elsewhere.
Gordon Bell has a small asphalt open space on the Maryland Street side of the school, but no green space.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 8, 2009 A7
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