{"id":19835,"date":"2018-02-16T09:45:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19835"},"modified":"2018-02-16T09:45:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:45:04","slug":"new-gymnasium-being-explored-for-the-stronach-aurora-recreation-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-gymnasium-being-explored-for-the-stronach-aurora-recreation-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"New gymnasium being explored for the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new gymnasium added onto the Stronach Aurora Recreation Centre would be a \u201cquick fix\u201d to address a growing community need.
\nThis is the view shared by Councillors Tom Mrakas and Michael Thompson, which received the support of the Town\u2019s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee at the close of 2017 and is a recommendation Council will consider this week.
\nCouncil is set to begin the process of exploring the feasibility and costs of building a gym onto the SARC to meet current \u2013 and growing demand. The recommendation to set a feasibility study was approved at the Committee level last Tuesday.
\nWhile Councillors agreed to start the process, however, Mayor Geoff Dawe said focus should continue to be on the new multiuse facility that is being designed for southeast Aurora.
\nLast year, Councillors Mrakas and Thompson, who were absent from last week\u2019s Committee meeting, pitched the addition to the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee amid continued design work for the new facility.
\nWith the expectation it could take a considerable amount of time to secure the land for the facility from the Provincial government, adding a new gym to the already bustling SARC was seen as a quick fix.
\n\u201cPersonally, I think it is a good fit and something which should have been built when the SARC was built,\u201d said Councillor Tom Mrakas, making his motion to the Committee. \u201cThere is a need for a gymnasium and I think it is something that can be put to good use.\u201d
\nCiting community needs and wants suggested for the new recreation centre, Councillor Mrakas said a gym for the SARC would not only go a long way in addressing those items, but transform the building into a \u201ctrue multiuse facility.\u201d
\n\u201cWe have soccer, there\u2019s tennis and hockey, if you have a gym you can make it that true multiuse facility. It is in a good location, the hotel is moving in and I think the gymnasium, if you build it right, can house some tournaments,\u201d he said. \u201cMy understanding from talking with representatives from the YNBA (York North Basketball Association) and the Ontario Basketball Association, we would be able to host a tournament if we had the facility. This, I think, would help with that and could help in the short term as well.\u201d
\nA similar view was offered by Councillor Thompson, who highlighted what he saw was the timeliness of pressing ahead with a new gym.
\n\u201cIf you look at the SARC and what we have done with it and added to it over the last couple of years, the missing component to me is to have a multipurpose gym there,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is actually a spot designated for that multipurpose gym in the southwest corner and there was a conversation about having it or not having it, it didn\u2019t make it into the final design, but if you look at that facility, I think when we look at all the components around there, it strikes me that there is one thing missing\u2026and I think it would complement the facility significantly.
\n\u201cI have had some residents come to me and talk to me about the fact there appears to be no warm-up spots for some of the hockey teams and so forth, so they are doing it in the common areas? To some degree, it is not a good mix with people who are trying to watch their kids or do whatever because you\u2019ve got other groups. If you had a gymnasium there would be a perfect spot for them when it is not being used, but it is opening up programming opportunities. There is an immediate need for another gym in Town and it is a bit of a quick fix.\u201d
\nThe idea won the support of many members of the Committee, with citizen member Eric McCartney stating he would like to see a gymnasium go one step further and follow the route of public schools in incorporating a stage space to maximize its value to the community.
\nFellow member Juergen Daurer, however, said while it \u201cwasn\u2019t a bad idea\u201d he wanted to see how it would fit into a full study of all of Aurora\u2019s facilities and within the context of the new multipurpose facility.
\nFor Councillor Thompson, however, there isn\u2019t enough time to sit around and wait.
\n\u201cI appreciate having that Master Plan, but we have been waiting on that piece of land [from the Province behind Cardinal Carter Catholic High School] for six years now and I would love to be able to say that we control our own destiny here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t with this one. Part of our struggle with having that Master Plan and having that other facility is we\u2019re at the mercy of another level of government and, as much as I am sure [Director Al Downey] is pushing them, I am not sure. There is a need for a multipurpose gym no matter what the Master Study is and I think it is a quick win to address one of the deficiencies we have.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new gymnasium added onto the Stronach Aurora Recreation Centre would be a \u201cquick fix\u201d to address a growing community need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-59V","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 12:32:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}