The $12 million Vanderhoof Aquatic Centre is moving forward on its new plan to open in early December instead of mid-October.
In an earlier interview on July 17th, District Special Project Coordinator Zoe Dhillion said not enough tilers were being provided.
Mayor Gerry Thiessen has come forward with what he says are reasons for the delay, stating there are several contributing factors, but tilers aren’t one of them.
“Those include the weather since we had a lot of snow this past year, labour availability in a busy market, and environmental issues, which we’ve seen a little bit here and a little bit there. In our last interview, we noted that the tilers were delayed and that’s not the case. There’s no one factor that’s caused the current delay, it’s rather a whole series of small things that have added up to it.”
Dhillion agreed with the Mayor’s assessment of the situation this week, but did not want to comment any further.
Thiessen adds he’s impressed with the hard work and efforts being done by local contractors, working on what will be listed as the largest project in Vanderhoof’s history.
“We’re a smaller community than others, so when you bring specialty labour into our community, each one of those things takes some really good coordination. We thank our contractor and the subcontractors that have been able to pull us all together.”
He believes this project is a long-time coming for local residents, who have already expressed interest in getting as much use of the facility as possible.
On Tuesday, the YMCA of Northern BC hired a General Manager, Heather Crozier, and Coordinator, Britney Inden, for the Aquatic Centre.