Local

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Vacant lot next to Gordon Bell not a good fit for field: division

By: Nick Martin

Posted: 02/4/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

GORDON Bell's field of dreams is apparently too big to shoehorn into the grounds surrounding the inner-city high school.

Winnipeg School Division trustee Mike Babinsky said Tuesday the controversial site Gordon Bell High School supporters are fighting to obtain is too small for standard high school athletic fields such as football, soccer, lacrosse or track and field.

Every field design used in Winnipeg School Division's large high schools would protrude onto some or all of Portage Avenue, Broadway, or parts of the Gordon Bell building, Babinsky said.

"Nothing fits," Babinsky said in an interview. Disappointed trustees meeting behind closed doors Monday night saw computer models developed by the building department, all of which showed superimposed fields and tracks at Kelvin, St. John's, Churchill, Daniel McIntyre, and Elmwood high schools eating into large chunks of Broadway, Portage, and the existing school building.

That was even assuming side street Borrowman Place would be closed, Babinsky said. Canada Post, which owns the land, plans to build a new facility on the former car dealership at Portage and Broadway immediately north of Gordon Bell.

Parents, students and community activists argue Gordon Bell students would be left without a playing field, and the inner-city school doesn't have other grassed sites nearby. They want Canada Post to go elsewhere and all levels of government to co-operate on building an athletic field at the site.

Community activist and Gordon Bell grad Nancy Chippendale said Tuesday students, parents and the community will take whatever fits into the site.

"They can still have a field, for Pete's sake," said Chippendale, a member of the coalition called Field of Dreams. "We won't use that as a reason to stop the momentum we have."

She said supporters will march next Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. from Gordon Bell to the legislature, where they'll demand Education Minister Peter Bjornson promise to fund the project.

"We want to put the ball in Peter Bjornson's court," she said. The only thing the building department could squeeze into the site was an American-sized football field -- 91.4 metres long by 48.7 metres wide -- laid out north-south, but that could fit only small oddly shaped chunks for end zones, and no room for a track or bleachers.

A Canadian football field is 100.5 metres by 59.4 metres, with rectangular end zones 18.2 metres deep.

"There were no bleachers" in any of the models tried, Babinsky said. Even leaving out a running track, none of the fields fit, either laid out east-west or north-south. "The drift of the board is, this field is too small to do anything," Babinsky said.

On the other hand, he said, it could certainly accommodate a large gymnasium complex for division-wide use.

Newly elected school board chairman Anthony Ramos declined to comment Tuesday on what went on behind closed doors at the first meeting he chaired, but said the division will be consulting with the community.

"There are undersized fields in our division -- it's up to the community what they want. There's a time crunch, that's all I can tell you right now," said Ramos.

Babinsky said trustees learned it would cost $2.6 million to acquire the site.

There is no estimate yet for the cost of converting it to an athletic field, closing off Borrowman, moving any utilities, or environmentally cleaning up the former car dealership site, he said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 4, 2009 A3

(You must be logged in to post your reaction)

Your reaction?

More Local

Undock

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.

The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010; View the changes. New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.