Chatham-Kent Council has formally adopted the 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan, initiating a 10-year vision for the municipality’s parks, arenas, pools, trails, and recreation programs.
The plan forecasts a total of $226.6 million in capital investment over the next decade, though no construction or funding for individual projects was approved at Monday’s meeting.
“One of the most important reasons for having clear council adopted projects in a master plan is to ensure Chatham Kent is ready for when these funding opportunities become available,” said Ian Clark, manager of parks, recreation and cemeteries. “Grant programs are often time-limited and highly competitive. Successful municipalities are those with projects identified, justified, and aligned with their long-term needs.”
Projects included in the 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan include:
• An investment of $166 million for a multi-use recreation complex with a minimum of two ice pads, an indoor fieldhouse, pool, and gymnasium, with a projected completion date sometime in 2035.
• Renovations to the Blenheim Memorial Arena.
• Development of a quad baseball/softball diamond complex in South Kent.
Staff will return to council at a later date with reports and funding proposals for each project.
Council also voted in favour of staff’s recommendation to hire a project manager at an annual cost of $147,227.21 with a one-time cost of $3,480.15, to be funded from the Asset Management Plan. The project manager will oversee work generated from council’s approval of up to $1 million from the New Arena Build Reserve and up to $1 million from the Parks Lifecycle Reserve to “perform the initial feasibility study, due diligence, and early design necessary to advance major capital projects and prepare for funding submissions.”
“This is way overdue, and we need to get moving on it,” Mayor Darrin Canniff told council. “The key piece here is when we talk about a million and a million, is we need to invest that. If we ever hope to have any chance of getting federal [or] provincial money, we have to have shovel-ready projects. And that means investing a certain level of it to get it shovel-ready.”
Staff will continue to refine project plans and funding strategies, ensuring residents have input and council approval before any construction begins.
