ELMSDALE:<\/strong> For the past five years, Kate Friars ate, breathed, and slept with nothing but the East Hants Aquatics Centre in Elmsdale on her mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the $19-million-dollar facilities grand opening on Sept. 18 in Elmsdale, Friars was one of the more poignant speakers among the dignitaries that included Kings-Hants MP Kody Blois, and Municipality of East Hants (MEH) Warden Jim Smith. The Government of Canada contributed $5.8 million with the Municipality of East Hants providing $13.2 million. CAO Kim Ramsay was the Emcee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friars, the Deputy CAO and former Parks and Recreation director for the MEH, was emotional when she spoke about the time since the project went from an idea to on paper in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to explain how you live and breathe a project for about five years, from ideas and comments from the community about a new facility, what that would look like, what it should be, and all the council meetings about where it should be,\u201d said Kate Friars. \u201cThis project has been my life. My passion, since 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She came to East Hants in 2014 she saw the need to have a focus on the community with services that would untie the community, help them be physically active, and make sure we could celebrate things that made sense to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat you see here today is a combination of a lot of that planning, a lot of those ideas, a lot of those visions from the community about the type of space,\u201d said Friars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”2″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n She became teary eyed on the opening of the splash pad, adjacent to the Aquatic Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI became teary eyed because all I could hear was squeals of laughter and kids getting wet,\u201d said Friars. \u201cThat is what I have done is make people happy and I focused on bringing that vision to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friars said there were many others behind the scenes that helped her make the day become a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t have done it without all of the help from the people with the Municipality of East Hants, there are so many staff that have their fingerprint on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe needed everybody\u2019s help to get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following items are included in the aquatic centre:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blois said he was pleased to be at the grand opening of the Aquatic Centre and thanked MEH councillors for their leadership on the project. His predecessor Scott Brison did much of the work in garnering federal support to fund the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat a beautiful facility we have here that will be an absolute legacy for our community,\u201d said Blois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”8″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a post-announcement interview and while masked and socially distancing, Blois spoke to The Laker News about what the day meant for the opening of the new pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe legacy that this facility will mean to the community is going to be felt for years ahead,\u201d he said. \u201cAs someone who was heavily involved in the sports and recreation community here in East Hants, to see a brand-new facility that will serve generations to come is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blois said the government he is part of has made infrastructure a priority, something he is proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen people can see the investment that we\u2019re making in the community, I think it\u2019s important, for the economy, but also health and social outcomes as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Warden Jim Smith said the opening was a good day in East Hants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a vision come true,\u201d he said in a post-announcement interview. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time in the making. It\u2019s something that\u2019s a legacy for me for the residents of East Hants to enjoy for the next 50 to 75 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He spoke of how Friars managed to bring the project under budget, something that is a rarity in the world with projects of this magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKate and her team worked relentlessly to ensure that this came in on budget,\u201d said Smith. \u201cCouncil had stated it was not to go over one cent more, and when it came back to me I reiterated council\u2019s wish. Kate made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The aquatic centre was designed by an integrated design team led by MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects in association with TEAL Architects+Planners. Bird Construction led the construction of a facility that is a leader in accessibility, quality, and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is designed so that toddlers, children, seniors and people of all ages and abilities can enjoy it. It will host a variety of aquatic and non-aquatic programs and be a hub for the community, all contributing to the social, physical and community well-being of residents of East Hants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Friars said the facility is impeccable and well-built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want to say thanks to municipal council in believing in this, believing in the organization that we could deliver it,\u201d Friars said. \u201cWe want to be able to do this type of project again in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”80″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MAIN PHOTO: Kings Hants MP Kody Blois and Warden Jim Smith cut the ribbon to officially open the new East Hants Aquatic Centre. (Healey photo) ELMSDALE: For the past five years, Kate Friars ate, breathed, and slept with nothing but the East Hants Aquatics Centre in Elmsdale on her mind. At the $19-million-dollar facilities grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[965],"tags":[1112,986,1281,1101],"class_list":["post-16860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-hants","tag-east-hants-aquatic-centre","tag-elmsdale","tag-kody-blois","tag-municipality-of-east-hants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_4382-683x1024.jpg\")
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