Queens MLA Kim Masland, who is also Nova Scotia’s public works minister, with Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman on Friday at Queens Place Emera Centre after Masland announced more than $2.7 million in funding for Queens County. (Rick Conrad)

A new outdoor pool and a state-of-the-art track and soccer field for Queens County got a lot closer to reality on Friday as Queens MLA Kim Masland announced more than $2.7 million in funding for the region.

Masland, who is also the province’s public works minister, told a crowd at Queens Place Emera Centre that the province will give $2.2 million toward the $7.2-million community pool to be located next to Queens Place.

She also pledged an extra $500,000 for a new all-weather artificial turf soccer field and rubberized track at Liverpool Regional High School. Masland announced $700,000 last fall for the facility. That was before the design was changed to make it an all-weather facility, which would be the first of its kind on the South Shore. That brings the provincial contribution for that project to $1.2 million.

Masland made the funding announcements on behalf of Allan MacMaster, minister of communities, culture, tourism and heritage.

“These announcements are all about physical activity, making sure that we have opportunities for people living here and for people who are interested in moving to be part of what we have going on here in Queens. Great investment to keep our youth engaged,” she told reporters afterward.

“People that are moving to our communities, we have new doctors moving here, they have young families. They want to have facilities where their children and where they themselves … can be active. Health care is what we were elected on, and every decision that we make, health care plays a role in.”

Masland also announced the Liverpool Curling Club will get $47,030 for upgrades to its kitchen facilities.

The pool will be a six-lane, 25-metre, zero-entry structure, with a therapy hot tub.

The Region of Queens is contributing $2 million toward the pool, while an anonymous private donor has committed about $3 million.

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman said that tenders for work on the pool will be issued soon. And the hope is that construction will begin in spring of 2025, with an anticipated opening in 2026.

“The next call will be the issuing of tenders. All the pre-designs are completed.”

Deborah Herman-Spartinelli is a member of the region’s pool committee and the Queens Community Aquatic Society. She said the provincial funding was “wonderful” news.

“We still need to fundraise for certain aspects. There’s all these things like starter blocks, equipment and the therapy pool and other things that are needed.”

Kristopher Snarby is president of the Queens County Track Society. He said that with Friday’s provincial funding, in addition to $1.8 million from the federal government and $250,000 from the municipality, his group has about $100,000 in fundraising left to do.

“We’re still hopeful that we might be able to get it done by late fall,” Snarby said in an interview.

“From a soccer perspective, it’s great. It allows us to have a longer season. You can play into the winter if you want to, as long as there’s no snow. From a track perspective, the rubberized surface will be fully accessible, a level walking area for seniors, for people with disabilities, and that also can be used year-round as well.”

This is the Houston government’s second significant funding announcement for Queens County in the past two weeks. On April 15, Masland announced $10.7 million for upgraded water and sewer infrastructure that would also be extended to the Mount Pleasant area of Liverpool.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Minister Kim Masland announces funding for new athletic facilities at Liverpool Regional High. Photo Ed Halverson

New athletic facilities and a walking trail are coming to Liverpool Regional High School.

Public Works Minister and MLA for Queens Kim Masland announced a combined $2.75 million from three levels of government to replace the school’s existing soccer field with artificial turf and build a 400-metre-long gravel running track.

The new artificial turf field will resolve long-standing issues with drainage.

At Friday’s announcement Masland said Queens has a history of producing world-class athletes and construction of the new field will support future athletes by allowing them to train closer to home.

“The big thing for us is we want to make sure that we’re providing a facility that people can use in our community. We have amazing athletes. We talked a little bit today about Sarah Mitton and [in] the announcement we talk about our special Olympians,” said Masland. “Many of our athletes have to travel to Bridgewater to be able to adequately train, so this will be able to keep people home and also bring people here for events.”

LRHS Principal Todd Symes says the effort to replace the school field began about six or seven years ago.

“Students always went to other schools and were kind of jealous or envious of facilities in other schools had and then logistically, a lot of our students had to travel to participate, to have the same advantages that a lot of other areas already had,” said Symes. “So, the students themselves came up with an idea. They came up with the design to come up with a plan and they were adamant that they wanted something done. So, we had students that were with us for 3-4 years. They worked the whole time they were here to engage community members, to draw designs, to work with staff members, to initiate development of a non-profit society and they were the ones who started the dream.”

Symes says the current funding will build the track and field and students will be approaching the community to help raise another $200,000 to realize the entire vision, including a Mi’kmaw learning trail.

Masland says the tender to replace the track and field will be released later this fall and the new field is expected to be completed in 2024.

Damaged retaining wall on Shore Rd in Western Head. Photo Ed Halverson

Also announced Friday was $1 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments to protect two stretches of Shore Rd in Western Head which are dealing with erosion and flooding.

Work will include reinforcing an existing retaining wall and excavating existing rock and gravel to provide more protection against the effects of climate change.

Masland says work on that project will be performed by local Public Works staff beginning this fall and finishing in spring of 2024.

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Vice principal Todd Symes at the site of the new track. Photo Ed Halverson

Volunteers at Liverpool Regional High School are working to build a track worthy of an Olympian.

Plans are in place to replace the schools’ existing soccer field and surround it with an eight-lane 400 metre long track.

Vice Principal Todd Symes identified the need for better training facilities when he arrived at LRHS six years ago.

“Believe it or not, we use our bus loop as a surrogate training ground which is not even safe or something I’d like to admit on radio but something we have to do out of necessity.”

The track team is one of the most popular events in the school and regularly sees 75-100 students participating each year.

Plans for the new track also include rebuilding the soccer pitch to ensure a more level surface and improve water drainage off the field. The soccer nets will be moveable to allow for throwing events and training to take place.

Proposed track plan. Submitted by Liverpool Regional High School

Symes says that’s key to providing a training ground form one of Queens County’s most famous athletes Olympic thrower, Sarah Mitton.

“Even really early on when the students here and the committee were looking at designing the facility, we said regardless of what happens, we want to make sure that Sarah has a place to come home to,” said Symes. “I know she currently comes home and has to drive to Halifax to train because even Park View is not equipped to handle her athletic and her Olympic caliber.”

Mitton has been doing her part in return trying to raise awareness of the group’s efforts to raise the $331,000 necessary to realize their vision.

The organization is making a dent in their fundraising. They already received a $50,000 grant and the student body, SAC and Regional Centre have contributed another $15,000.

Symes is pleased people are getting behind the idea but thinks they could be further along were it not for the events of the last year.

“I keep hating to use COVID as an excuse for everything but it’s kind of put a damper on our community involvement. We can’t have any large-scale group meetings and we can’t do any large-scale fundraising. So we’re just relying on word-of-mouth and community members who have contacted us; numerous community members and businesses that want to be part of this project,” said Symes.

The group is not idly waiting for the money to roll in. They’ve launched a fundraising page and a GoFundMe campaign to reach their goal.

Symes says the project is ready to go, they’re just waiting on the money.

“To be honest, we’ve put a lot of work in the last four or five years in the back end to make sure that this is a pretty smooth transition,” said Symes. “We have everything laid out and if we were to break ground today, we’re pretty confident we could have it completed by September.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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