DELTA — The expanded North Delta Recreation Centre opened its doors during a “soft opening” Monday (Feb. 28), adding 27,000 square feet of space to the existing facility on 84th Avenue.
The expansion includes a fitness centre, aerobics studio, gym, art gallery/shop, a new outdoor playground and other amenities.
The grand opening celebration will be held April 2.
The original plan called for a $10.5-million expansion of the facility, but the number grew to $15.2 million with revisions, including structural changes.
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In the universal change room (pictured), the open-concept locker area is positioned in the middle of doored stalls available to all users.
“There’s a definite preference to have a facility where the whole family can go in,” Ken Kuntz, Delta’s Director of Parks, Recreation & Culture, told the Now. “So you have the private areas where a person can change, but the lockers are in an open area, so it’s eyes and ears in the locker area, for safety.
“There will be a period of learning and adjustment for people, and we expect that,” Kuntz added. “People will look at it and go, ‘Well, this is different,’ right, but when they start to see it and use it and feel comfortable with it, I’m pretty confident they’ll go, ‘Yeah, this makes some sense.’”
In the existing facility, the rink’s concrete slab will be ripped up after the current hockey season, as part of work to replace the cooling/heating system and rebuild the players’ benches and bleachers.
“That will take about four months, from April to mid-August, so we won’t have what we call a dry-floor season for lacrosse or ball hockey this spring – they’ve been displaced to other locations this season,” said Carol Chard, who manages the rec centre.
Meanwhile, in South Surrey, a “large, family-friendly universal change area” is also part of the new Grandview Heights Aquatics Centre, due open today (March 3) at 16855 24th Ave.
Aquatic features there include a 10-lane competition pool, a 500-square-metre leisure and lifestyle pool with a lazy river, spray features and tots’ area, dive towers, two hot tubs to accommodate families and adult users, steam room, dry sauna and spectator seating for nearly 900 people.
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com