The Pitt Meadows Family Recreation Centre will be getting a half-million dollar renovation thanks in part to a grant from the federal government.
The City of Pitt Meadows announced Friday it will receive $242,750 from the federal Western Economic Diversification Canada program to help expand the recreation centre’s weight room, making it bigger, and more accessible. The City of Pitt Meadows will match the grant with $242,750 of it’s own to help fund the expansion.
“We’ll be able to triple to quadruple our capacity,” said Don Cramb, parks and leisure service’s recreation manager.
The expansion will increase the recreation centre’s weight room from 1,200 square feet to 3,700. In addition to new gym and workout equipment, there will also be new specialized equipment to ensure all of Pitt Meadows’ citizens will be able to use the facility.
“If you want to get from a wheelchair onto one of the machines, you’ll be able to do that now,” said Cramb.
The expansion is much needed, he said, as the current weight room is undersized and overused.
“Right from when it was built in 2001, we realized almost right away we were too small and too crowded,” Cramb said.
The weight room itself will be expanded into the space currently occupied by the Pitt Meadows Seniors’ Centre. The seniors’ centre will be moving into its new home on 190A Street, behind the recreation centre in the next few months.
“Structurally, we’re just knocking down a few walls,” said Cramb. “Most of the money will be for new equipment.”
No date has been set for the start of construction, but Cramb said he expects renovations to get started early in the new year, and to be completed by the end of next summer.
“We have to time it so there’s as little disruption as possible,” he said.