Mayor Henry Siemens says he's hopeful the Winkler Centennial Arena revitalization project will be ready to go to tender in the first quarter of 2024.
Work continues finalizing plans for the multi-million upgrades, however, Siemens said with two big projects on the verge of going to tender, the wastewater treatment plant, and the expansion to Winkler's Water Treatment facility, a bit more time will be taken with the arena tender. Siemens said Council is "literally weeks away" from being able to put tenders out on those two significant projects.
"So, as we wait for that, the Centennial Arena project is maybe waiting a little bit to find out how much money we have left to do that after we have water and wastewater done. We're committed to the project. We will work on that project, but we do want to make sure we're good stewards of the tax dollars that we collect, and we want to get some kind of confidence in the pricing that we have for our water and our wastewater project before we do a final award for the arena."
Siemens says they have seen some very good designs, as well as some preliminary budgets for the arena. He said some of the initial pricing they're getting back has been a little bit intimidating. He notes they've been able to make a few changes that will bring the cost closer to where they hope to be.
As soon as the other two tenders are awarded, Siemens said they will start moving forward with the arena.