Future of recreation in Neepawa examined

Details

Published on Tuesday, December 1, 2015

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The future of recreational facilities and services in Neepawa has received a closer examination. An invitational meeting on the topic was held Thursday, Nov. 26, at the town office and included representatives from various local organizations. The event was an effort to discuss the long term recreational needs of the community and how to best address them.

Conflict analyst and facilitator, Doctor Megan Mckenzie was brought in as a meeting consultant. She said that for sessions like this, its imperative for all sides to come together and see the big picture.

“It’s very important at the start of these types of discussions, just to hear where everyone else is at. There are so many community groups out there and at times that can create some tunnel vision,” said Dr. McKenzie.

“Before anything can be accomplished, we have to know about everything that’s happening,” said Dr. McKenzie. “It’s not about how many basketballs do we buy, compared to how many soccer balls. It’s about how do we make this community thrive and how can we make best use of our recreational resources? Ensuring that the resources are going to the things that people are really passionate about and the things that they really need.” 

The consensus among those gathered was the need for a new multi-use facility, with a strong emphasis on the multi-purpose aspects. Participation in sports such as gymnastics, basketball and soccer is growing at an extraordinary pace in Neepawa. Reps with those activities noted that the Beautiful Plains School Division has been fantastic with its support by providing access to the local gymnasiums. Those groups added, however, that there is simply not enough available space or time in the day to accommodate the ever increasing local need. They noted that a multi-use facility would alleviate some of the problems currently being dealt with when it comes to facility accessibility.

Leisure services manager Amanda Novak said that while this initial meeting was a good start, she hoped that it would have focused more on establishing an advisory committee.

“I think this was a great first step, though I believe we did not get to the heart of what our issues are here in Neepawa. I hope that the followup meeting will get more into that,” said Novak. “Ultimately, an advisory committee could serve as an umbrella, representing all of the organizations and facilities. They could work with me, as a liaison to lobby town council and neighbouring RMs.”

During the meeting, there were also suggestions that any type of project that’s pursued needs to be 100 per cent volunteer driven. Novak disagreed with that suggestion, and said that the municipality needs to be a part of the conversation.

“This town council does have to take the lead in the next steps and understand what they are,” stressed Novak. “This can’t be just all these organizations and non-profits getting together and trying to do something on their own. Council can play a role and it needs to look at recreation and give it the same appreciation as other things in the community, such as roads and sewer.”

The next steps in this effort will be to form an advisory committee, made up of local business and community leaders and to formulate a clear direction in which this proposal should go. A time line for that to occur has yet to be formalized.