The ground has been broken on Russell Township’s new $100 million recreation complex.
The ceremonial start to construction was held on Tuesday, Sept. 17, with around 50 people present, including the Mayor of Russell Township Mike Tarnowski, Member of Provincial Parliament Stéphane Sarrazin, and Russell Chief Administrative Officer Richard Godin, among others.
“This complex is more than just a building; it symbolises the future of our township where the health and wellbeing of our residents are at the forefront,” said Mayor Tarnowski during his speech. “Today’s ground-breaking – of course, they’ve already started – marks a very, very important addition to this complex.”
With an initial estimated cost of $104 million, the project is the largest project the municipality has undertaken.
“I’m very happy we’re here. As it has been said, we’ve been working on this project for years,” said former Russell Mayor Pierre Leroux, who kicked off the project in earnest during his tenure before resigning to work as Chief Administrative Officer of the neighbouring municipality of The Nation. “My name won’t be on the plaque, but that’s okay.”
Back when Leroux was a municipal councillor in 2010, the project was already a discussion. Then in 2014, he kept pushing for the project to go in that direction.
“It took a while, but we got there,” Leroux said.
Although the project has been in the works for many years, public consultations and community involvement has been near constant since 2020.
The Recreation Complex will have three ice rinks with a total capacity of under 500 seats and 260 standing room, 12 change rooms equipped with gender-neutral facilities, a 25-metre indoor pool with six lanes, a dry sauna, a fully accessible and inclusive changing room, a 10,000-square-foot community hall made to be divisible into three sections to allow for three separate venues, and a fully equipped kitchen.
The land that will play home to the Recreation Complex also has the Jonathan Pitre Accessible Park, the sports dome, tennis court, basketball court, and the New York Central Fitness Trail.
The project should be completed in fall 2026.
“It’s only the beginning,” said Tarnowski. “This is our opportunity to show it to the public. It’s exciting to see the project begin, even though the project already began last year, but now it’s moving forward for real.”
During the presentation, the Mayor revealed that Stéphane Sarrazin, MPP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, aims to help the municipality to obtain grants to help finance the complex.
“There’s nothing official yet,” said Sarrazin. However, he mentions that in August of this year, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation announced they are accepting applications for the new Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund (CSRIF) as part of the 2024 budget. The province will be investing $200 million to help municipalities update sports and recreation infrastructure between $150,000 and $1 million and build new ones for up to $10 million.
“If we look at the project as it is, it meets all the criteria for this program, so we’re really hoping for good news. We can never say it’s a sure thing, there’s a selection committee at the ministry, but we’re really expecting to get maybe 10 million from the province for the project,” said Sarrazin, who expects to hear back from the government by late fall.
