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SCHOOL OPENING GETS CLOSER: Representatives of the New Westminster school district stand in front of the new New Westminster Secondary School building as it gets closer to completion. See more photos of the long-awaited new school on page 11. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
City moves forward with plans for pool project Theresa McManus tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
NewWestminster is wading back into its plans to build a new aquatics and community centre but isn’t quite ready to plunge right in just yet. For the past several years, the city has been working on plans to build
a replacement for the Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre. Construction of the NewWestminster aquatic and community centre was expected to begin in the summer, but the city put it on hold in June and agreed to revisit it in the fall. “We took a pause on that project as COVID-19
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was happening in the spring,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “We had anticipated to hopefully start construction of the project this summer.We didn’t feel comfortable in the spring period to move ahead with that.” Council recently directed staff to immediately proceed with a request for
proposals for construction of the facility. “We are now feeling a little bit more comfortable about the project, and we will be putting it out to tender to get bids on the project,” Cote said. Once the city has a chance to review the construction bids and has a better understanding of
the city’s financial position, Cote said council will decide whether to proceed or continue to “pause” the project. “We are hopeful, given the dynamics in the construction industry right now, that we will actually get some really competitive pricing put forward, but we don’t know that un-
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til we get the bids back,” he said. “We also want to give a little bit more time as we work through the budget, just to see where the financial situation is for the city. By and large, we were quite concerned in the spring period about some of the financial aspects of the city.” Continued on page 3