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 Preliminary work has begun on an ambitious project to transform a vacant field into a bustling hub of recreational activity. The centrepiece of the revamped Queen's Park, at the corner of Green St. and Highway 10A, will be a running track encircling a soccer field. 'Hopefully we'll have the track laid out with gravel by the fall and potentially paved in the spring,' said Blaine Veitch, superintendent of the Flin Flon School Division, which is funding the park overhaul. Speaking at Tuesday's school board meeting, Veitch said the precise timing will hinge on finances and a factor beyond the division's control _ weather. Just last year, a running track seemed unlikely at the park given the digging and ground-packing required to work around sewer and water lines beneath the property. Veitch said the track became feasible when it was reduced from a 400-metre track to a 350-metre track. That's not big enough to host provincial tournaments, but he noted the track will include a regulation-size 100-metre sprint and 120-metre hurdle. 'We had to downsize to fit the area,' Veitch said. Trustee Murray Skeavington, board chair, said very few tracks in Manitoba are large enough to host provincial events. For one thing, he said, a track must have eight lanes, three more than the five lanes to be included on the new Flin Flon track. The soccer field inside the perimetre of the track will be about three-quarters the size of a regulation field. Blueprint As shown on a blueprint unfolded at Tuesday's meeting, Queen's Park is to in time 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. 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 is complete, Trustee Skeavington said the hope is to complete the other components of the park within the next year or two. A key part of the park overhaul is virtually complete but not yet officially open _ the Flin Flon Skatepark overlooking the property from an elevation beside Many Faces Education Centre.
