By Neil Ostafichul
From the validation files – a few weeks earlier we were having a coffee at a local unnamed secondhand bookstore when the tall owner mentioned that he actually can tell when there’s an event, tournament or something along that line at the Community Complex by the influx of new or out of town clientele. We had kind of known that would happen to a greater extent when we expanded the facility but it is always nice to hear or see that trickle down effect into the community.
That’s always a challenge when you build or create something that you know will have a ripple effect but there is no real way to quantify that – it’s like the ripple effect of having the pool and fitness facilities – prior to it being completed, I often mused about if there was some way to track community health overall, from newborns to seniors prior to construction, then present day. It’s obvious that there is a vast physical health (and probably mental and social health) improvement; we have lost track of the number of patrons that had come in using a cane or walker to eventually move around under their own steam, in some cases avoiding or at least delaying certain surgeries.
How do you quantify those intangible (at the time) benefits when you are, for instance, pitching a budget to the decision makers or trying to get buy-in from the Healthcare system? Those can be tough decisions for those groups who often have to work in absolutes; responsible to taxpayers, shareholders or some higher power. Luckily, there are still some out there that will acknowledge the potential of a project or proposal and just maybe, gamble a bit on the future. It’s like the Community Park beside the Complex; we inherently know once we get it all figured out and built, like Field of Dreams, they will come and that area will be one of the busiest places on the grounds.
Still on the subject of trickling down, later that week we stopped in for lunch at a local pub and a quick scan showed a couple tables with women taking a break from the Valentines Bonspiel and another couple tables with families that had taken part in the Kootenay Regional Figure Skating Championships. I had to pass on the kudos to our maintenance staff that one of the out of town dads (that recognized me as an inmate from the Community Complex) paid regarding our ice being the best as well as cleanest facility in all the places his daughter had skated at. Our staff does take pride in the Community Complex plus it is great to see some of that out-of-town cash being spread around our community.
A couple of other interesting notes – we finally added some comfy chairs to the fireplace area by the pool which actually was in the original 2008 design as the “conversation pit”. While budgets and priorities kind of dictated when we could pull it off, the amount of use that area now gets is amazing although through advances in technology over the years, often it is less a “conversation pit” than a “stare at my smart phone pit”.
Finally, speaking of high use areas, despite the loss of our eastern slope toboggan hill to a skatepark, I see a well trampled path across the soccer field to our western slope by the ball diamond. Not only does this location provide a bit more fitness benefit walking to it, the chances of rocketing into the path of oncoming vehicles in the parking lot has been greatly reduced. Have a great weekend!