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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

New Bronx Park facility nearly done

By: Staff Writer

1/06/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 13

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CONSTRUCTION crews are putting the finishing touches on the $6.5-million renovation of Bronx Park Community Centre, one of the largest recreation upgrades in Winnipeg.

In 2005, the city redirected $43 million in former rapid-transit funding toward community-centre infrastructure improvements. The General Council of Winnipeg Community Centres then decided to upgrade Bronx Park, move other east Winnipeg programs into the centre and turn the former Kelvin Community Centre into a satellite facility.

When it opens later this month, the new Bronx Park Community Centre in East Kildonan will also be the home of the Good Neighbours Wellness Centre and host East End Arts & Cultural Centre programs.

The renovated facility has a full-sized gym and new meeting rooms, a woodworking shop, a creative arts room and a computer lab. The exterior of the centre has a new activity court, non-regulation soccer field, replacement hockey rinks and a playground, as well as a 72-stall parking lot.

Some athletic programming will still take place at the former Kelvin site, whose main building was demolished following the formal closing of the community centre in 2007. Elmwood-East Kildonan Coun. Lillian Thomas, former Elmwood MLA Jim Maloway and dozens of community residents opposed the Kelvin closure, which was the end result of an exhaustive GCWCC review of 71 Winnipeg community centres.

The city gave the volunteer-run GCWCC the task of making decisions about community centre openings, closings and expansions to prevent civic and provincial politicians from interfering with the process.

-- Staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 1, 2009 B1

History

Updated on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 4:45 PM CDT:
Corrected location of community centre to East Kildonan.

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13 Commentscomment icon

Although the street names are difficult to read, the following maps may clear up some confusion and be of some interest: http://www.winnipeg.ca/clerks/docs/pathways/Sum02/Sum02Pg09.stm & http://www.flickr.com/photos/manitobamaps/2091839988/
Bronx Park CC is clearly in East Kildonan, which, as other posters have pointed out, is far from ghetto.
Here's to a smooth opening. I'm excited to see what kind of programs and activities will be offered.

Its in EK without a doubt.

avatar

Bronx Park actually only exists in our minds, and until I see it with my own eyes, no one can convince me it's real.

No, RememberNorthPortage, you are absolutely wrong. I was born in East Kildonan and lived there for 35 years, back in the days when East Kildonan was a separate entity with its own mayor and city council, long before the unicity we have today. The fact that north of Henderson Hwy. is in the present North Kildonan city councillor's ward has nothing to do with it. Political ridings are divided up as seen fit, and named for reasons other than accuracy. It has never, ever been a part of North Kildonan, and East Kildonan ended at the Red River to the west, not a Henderson Hwy. You're mistaking a municipal riding with actual city boundaries from the days when metropolitan Winnipeg was made up of numerous separate cities. Sarcastic comments when you're wrong just make you look silly.

@ohreally....

Wow...please tell me where you live....if you consider this area to be ghetto...you must live in the graffiti free, vandalism free, robbery free, etc, etc...actually completely crime free area of the city.

I would love to join your neighbourhood....actually, no I wouldn't. With your narrow-minded opinion, I would hate to have you as a neighbour.

Thanks for staying out of our "ghetto".

Signed,
a happy EK'er for life!

Unfortunately, you are all wrong. If you lived in the area as I did in the mid-90s....WEST OF HENDERSON HIGHWAY IS NORTH KILDONAN. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have had MARK LUBOSCH on the BALLOT when voting for CITY COUNCILLOR.

Gat your heads out of your backsides and learn a thing or two about your city. Shame on you and your ignorance.

Bronx Park is in neither Elmwood nor North Kildonan. South of Larsen Ave. is Elmwood, and north of McLeod Ave. is North Kildonan. Bronx Ave., being smack-dab in the middle, is as solidly East Kildonan as you can get.

Both the writer and RememberNorthPortage are wrong. Bronx Park is neither Elmwood or North Kildonan. It's smack-dab in the middle of East Kildonan. South of Larsen Ave. and it's Elmwood, north of McLeod Ave. and it's North Kildonan.

It's too bad they didn't give us the spray pad that we wanted--and were told we were getting. That's one way to bring young families into the area--make a recreation centre a glorified senior's centre. Why will this city not see that ignoring EK and NK is only going to push young families out of the area?

ohreally, - A new Community Centre, a new home for Good Neighbors, and all you can focus on is the single graffiti tag? Some punk sprays one tag on a building, and that means that it will be littered with grafitti soon? I hope you don't view everything in such a negative light.

This neighborhood is hardly a ghetto. We just took a walk up Kildonan Drive to Fraser Grove Park last weekend. It was filled with kids and families. It's a beautiful area. You should check it out this summer and you'll see that there's no truth to your comments.

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