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Bold Center open, and making a good first impression

The Bold Center is open, and the new multiplex has already attracted thousands of visitors, hosted a basketball tournament and a Portage Voyageurs hockey game, as staff work out the kinks of opening a new building.

The Bold Center is open, and the new multiplex has already attracted thousands of visitors, hosted a basketball tournament and a Portage Voyageurs hockey game, as staff work out the kinks of opening a new building.

Early last week, Bold Center staff were dealing with phone issues and figuring out how to smoothly process memberships. Those bugs have been worked out, and membership sales have been steady during the first week of operations, say staff.

Although the doors have been open for just over a week, county staff and councillors already have a few years of work behind them when it comes to the multiplex.

Mayor Peter Kirylchuk was at last weekend’s JAWS basketball tournament at the Bold Center, and he took a few moments to tell the Post about the work involved in getting the doors opened, and what he refers to as a “series of successes.”

The recession actually benefitted the Bold Center, he said, noting that the economic slump helped lower prices and freed up contractors for the project. What started out as potentially a $72-million project will come in at closer to $55 million, with those cost savings enabling council to approve add-ons like the curling rink and the community hall after the initial plans were proposed, as well as adding seating to the main arena, said the mayor.

The petition opposing the $48-million borrowing bylaw and the resulting plebiscite vote also helped the multiplex project, he said. It was the uprising of opposition to the petition that brought together community members who believed in the project, and the necessity of borrowing money to build it.

“It brought people together,” he said, noting that 70 per cent of residents voted in favour of borrowing the money when the issue came to a final plebiscite.

As he watched visiting high school teams play on the fieldhouse basketball courts, Kirylchuk said it was events like this that show the Bold Center can be a success. By keeping the spaces filled the building can live up to its potential.

“The main thing to remember is you need people,” he said. “Without people it’s just a building.”

The mayor wants to see the Bold Center full, and he notes the under-construction library will help add to the building’s appeal. So will the two proposed schools – once they are approved by Alberta Education and built.

With the schools, and the students using the facility, “this place will just hum,” he said.

But there’s always something holding back the approval, he said, adding lower natural gas prices, the recent recession, and other provincial issues, have all helped to stall approval. It will likely come, he said, but the question is when.

Having been at the groundbreaking ceremony more than two years ago, and now walking the halls of the finished Bold Center, Kirylchuk has seen the facility in nearly every stage of construction, and he likes what he sees. From the overall design to the finishing touches like the flooring colour and stonework, he is pleased with the way it turned out.

But his favourite part, he said, would have to be the walking track.

“My wife and I plan on using it on a regular basis,” said the mayor, adding everything about the Bold Center is “magnificent.”

Spectators at the J.A. Williams basketball game had many words of praise for the building, with one parent saying that the inside of the Bold Center was more like something found in a city, not a small rural municipality.

“It doesn’t feel like you’re in Lac La Biche,” he said.

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