Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2012 (3203 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The city and province have agreed to spend $700,000 worth of new recreation facilities on the former Kelvin Community Centre site in Elmwood.
The city closed Kelvin in 2007 and tore it down the following year. The move followed a multi-year process of deciding which older community centres deserved upgrades and which needed to be mothballed.
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
The Kelvin Community Centre was demolished in 2008.
Area residents nonetheless opposed the closure.
The city then tried to market the former land alongside Henderson Highway and received a $90,000 offer from a real-estate developer, said Elmwood-East Kildonan Coun. Thomas Steen, who joined council in 2010.
After hearing pleas from Elmwood residents, Steen asked council to remove the Kelvin site from the city's list of surplus properties and return it to some form of recreational use.
"It's not easy to get councillors to go back on their decisions," Steen joked on Thursday, when the city and province announced the construction of a skate park, a new outdoor skating rink, a toboggan hill, an accessible playground and a walking path at the site
Steen and Mayor Sam Katz said the city will spend $400,000 on the project, using $300,000 in funds already set aside for recreation and $100,000 in new funding. Elmwood MLA Jim Maloway and Local Government Minister Ron Lemieux said the province will contribute $300,000.
The site will be a satellite of Bronx Park Community Centre.
Watch our archive video from May 21, 2008 of the Kelvin Rec Centre being demolished: