Prince George, B.C.- The average cost  of refurbishing a playground  is $65 thousand dollars, and  a new  report to Prince George City Council  indicates there are  about 40 playgrounds which still need to be refurbished .

The information was included in the Community Recreational Services Plan report presented to Council last evening.

The report notes there are a number of facilities which are near, or at the end of their life. That means they may have to be refurbished or upgraded meaning more dollars would need to be added to the infrastructure deficit.

The report   calls for more partnerships to help make the facilities sustainable.  The City Manager says  the 136 page document  is a “state of the nation” report  to  help inform  future plans “It’s really a planning document to help us  understand what we have in our community and the changing demographics  in our community” says City Manager Beth James.

But the report clearly outlines the need to assess facilities which are in disrepair and underutilized and possibly repurposing those properties.

The report presents a number of recommendations which  would require  significant  public consultation.  City Manager Beth James calls for an implementation plan to outline how that consultation will be rolled out.

The 7 recommendations presented to Council   which were approved  for  further  work are:

1. Pursue a consultative process to assess options and improve the effectiveness and efficiencies of the Community Development Model (Community Associations) in order to ensure a durable cost effective service delivery system.
2. Administration will continue to conduct condition assessments for facilities that are at or near the end of their estimated service life
3. Administration will work with Northern Sports Centre Limited and the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre to gain a better understanding of community use and satisfaction levels with the associated facility.
4. Administration will continue to consult and assess business case options, costs, partnerships and potential funding opportunities for an artificial turf field.
5. Administration will engage with ball diamond clubs to explore options for increased shared use, higher utilization, efficiencies, and benefits for clubs and the City, while also moving to decommission or repurpose underutilized ball diamonds.
6. Administration will move to decommission unmaintained and unused tennis courts and basketball courts on City land and will focus City resources on sites that are most popular and that are located in strategic locations, such as multi-use sites.
7. As a long-term strategy to rationalize the supply, demand and costs of maintaining playgrounds, Administration will move to a target range of 800m for assessing neighbourhood supply and will undertake a neighbourhood playground assessment based on this new target range. For playground replacement, Administration will use a graduated response that demonstrates an on-going commitment to bring the remaining playgrounds up to a CSA standard, and to earmark capital funding for refurbishment or replacement in a way that is adaptable to annual budget resources.

City Manager Beth James noted the Study on aquatic   facilities  is underway and will be presented soon but  made it clear, the work on the 7 recommendations outlined in this report  is  not expected to be completed  in  a year or even 18 months.  She says this work is meant to be long term.