The skate shack at the McCauley Community League Rink has to go. It was never intended to be there as long as it has. It is a temporary structure, and the City deems that it is not appropriate for long-term use. If you have a closer look and think of all the use it’s seen over the years, it seems hard to debate its value – even if it is just a worksite trailer turned into a skate shack.

The League board, as most non-profit boards go, has itself come and gone numerous times. As such, our time is likely to fade into the sunset one day. We’re hoping that we’ll leave the community with a new, purpose-built building that will continue to serve the needs of the community and rink users well into the future.

As the land is owned by the City and granted to the McCauley Community League, and then held in trust by the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, should the MCL fade into the ether, the process for building a structure has proven to be a complex and time-consuming beast to say the least. We’re fortunate to have a team of committed residents and members who have helped to move the ball forward with respect to tackling this mountain of required documentation.

While the process is too lengthy and, quite frankly, too boring to describe in this article, the sum of it is, there is a lot of detail to the process. If you want to read what’s involved, search for ”Community Group Led Construction Project Guide” on the City of Edmonton website. The initial document set is just about done, and once we’ve done this recent survey we can move onto the next stage.

So far, the Community League has created a building committee, which has been meeting weekly to work through the required documents to submit to the City.  The committee has

• Refined and presented to the League a Terms of Reference which was approved to guide the work going forward.
• Collected demographic information to understand the community make-up.
• Developed a project description.
• Prepared an organizational profile.
• Considered the context and alternatives.
• Drafted an engagement plan to ensure we are talking to the community throughout the process. 

We are hoping to close this first critical phase shortly so we can leverage some much-needed funding and open the door to hiring a project manager who will assist the team with moving through to design, development, and eventually construction.

As part of the process we are required to solicit community feedback so we can find out what the community wants and desires from the project. And before you say, “We did that before!” – yes, I know. But we need to do it again, and there’s no harm in that. Measure twice, cut once as the saying goes.

So, you will see lots of posters and notices about the survey. We encourage all McCauley residents (rink users and everyone in general) to contribute. It is online at mccauleycl.com and linked from our Facebook page. There will be lots of opportunities to tell us what you (McCauley) desire. Take the time and tell us (again maybe) what you want to see. I will note that this is time-sensitive, so make sure to have your voice heard. Please take the survey by February 20th. This is your chance to have a say, get involved, and see the project and all our efforts come to fruition.

Greg is the President of the McCauley Community League. He can be reached at league@mccauleycl.com