The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Less than three months into the work, the development of Queen's Park has gone six figures over budget. The Flin Flon School Board originally expected to spend about $224,000 on the first phase of the project which includes, a running track surrounding a soccer field. But a revised estimate stands at $325,000 _ a difference of $101,000. Heather Fleming, secretary-treasurer of the school division, said more fill and land-leveling was required than initially expected. At their meeting Tuesday, the school board voted to draw $106,000 from their surplus to put toward the project. Trustee Angela Simpson agreed it was a matter of either drawing the money from surplus this year or including the cost in next year's budget. She said the board wanted to fund the work sooner to reduce the amount of mud at the site and allow for proper use of the field. 'It wouldn't get used and it would just create such a mess for the school and everywhere else, so it really wasn't much of a choice for us to go ahead and finish that phase,' said Trustee Simpson. Before workers arrived at the site in August, the board had already spent over $170,000 to purchase the park and conduct preliminary work. Even with the extra money taken out of surplus, Fleming said the school division is expected to have an accumulated surplus equal to about 3.5 per cent of its overall budget as of June 2013. That is within the range recommended by the provincial government, which does not want any division's surplus to exceed four per cent of the total budget. The centrepiece of the revamped Queen's Park, at the corner of Green St. and Highway 10A, will be the running track encircling a soccer field. The park is to in time also include a tennis court, a basketball court and an area that will be a volleyball court in the summer and a skating rink in the winter. Southern end All three facilities will be located at the southern end of the field, near Hapnot Collegiate, with the track and soccer field occupying the southern area close to Green St. and Highway 10A. In the southeastern corner, not far from the track, is a site labeled as the future home of a 250-seat amphitheatre. Once the track and soccer field are finished, the hope is to complete the other components of the park within the next year or two, Trustee Murray Skeavington previously told The Reminder.
