Minto Council approved a presentation and concept in principle at last week's meeting regarding a potential expansion of sports facilities at the Harriston Fairgrounds site.
Matt Lubbers, Director of Community Services, says there has been interest in the past to put some form of sports pad there.
"We've had some interest in a sports pad, specifically, going on that location. When we were kinda doing some research on it, and we had a look, and about a year ago, we went to council and told them it might make sense to put an overall plan together for that space because there is a lot of area there, there's a lot of potential and a plan would give us something to work towards. So that's kinda how this whole thing came about," Lubbers explained.
Lubbers says the next steps will be getting things in order to put a plan into action.
"So next steps this year, now that it has been essentially approved in principle, would be to get working on this sports pad. So there'll be some work the town needs to do in advance of that, some prep work and relocating some items currently onsite. So the goal for this year, number one would be the sports pad, and we also wanna look at putting a small soccer pitch onsite, and potentially get started on a walking trail, as well," added Lubbers.
Now that the town is moving forward with getting a plan together, Lubbers says they won't know the cost until they decide just how much they want to add to the site.
"It's gonna be tied to capital funding that the town can put towards it, community contributions. Sometimes there's federal and provincial grants that become available and when you have a plan in place, sometimes it bodes well to get that type of funding. So it's gonna be an ongoing sort of living plan and this just gives us something to work towards," Lubbers concluded.
