SUMMERSIDE – City council is considering an extension to Credit Union Place to house the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
In December, a city-appointed committee chaired by Paul Power made its recommendation to council and to the board of directors of the Hall following a lengthy period of research.
All indicators pointed to Credit Union Place as the logical location for the Hall given the numbers of people who use the facility on a daily basis.
The committee gave its report to council behind closed doors in December.
“Right now, council is in budget discussions so it will be in that mix over the next short period of time until the next move,” said Mayor Basil Stewart. “It’s still moving ahead but with budget discussions those types of things will have to be discussed before anything gets approved.”
Rather than using existing space at Credit Union Place council is looking at a recommendation to build on to the facility to house the hall of fame.
“They’re talking about a connection to the Credit Union Place,” Stewart said. “But there are no final decisions on that. There were presentations made to council and one to the board but council will have to decide a number of things. It’s not only council’s decision we have to work in co-ordination with the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame and likely the province.”
Stewart said the city-appointed committee did quite a bite of work researching locations.
“They came back and said it should be at the Credit Union Place,” he said.
Stewart said there were some preliminary sketches presented to council.
“It has to be determined how many square feet that will be required,” the mayor said. “There were some suggestions but as the committee goes through the stages and the costs and looking at the years – there’s no sense in putting something together that you’re going through the same thing in five or 10 years. It should be a 30-to-50 year plan and it should be something that’s decent and respectable for the inductees presently and future inductees.”
Stewart said there is no definite timetable to re-open the Hall.
“It takes a while to get a package like this tied together,” he said. “Hopefully, as we go through the budget over the next couple of months, the next step will be able to be made.”
The mayor said it is too early in the planning stages to determine how much an addition to Credit Union Place will cost.
“The final costs as to what the building will be and those kinds of things will have to be determined,” Stewart said. “We’re trying to move ahead as reasonably as we can. Hopefully, at the end of budget discussions council will be in a position to decide where we go from here as far as square footage of the building and all of those kinds of things.”
(mcarson@journalpioneer.com)
