Ground Breaking for Niverville’s multiplex project is only four or five weeks away.

That according to Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck. He says the designs for the Community Resource Centre should be finalized shortly.

"We had to have 50% drawings to receive the grant so we didn't want to get too far down the road with getting 100% drawings. That is the next step is to get all of that finalized. What I understand is the foundation part of it is basically complete but now the structure part of it is still needing some final detail and then it is about a 16-month build."

The town recently received $11.3M in funding from the federal and provincial governments to add to the $5M they have set aside as well as the $3.5M they plan to raise. The 99,027sq.ft. project will include a field house, leisure activity spaces, an indoor play area, community common areas, and a new arena.

Dyck says the arena will be built with seating for 600 or 700 people and will have room for an additional 300 or 400 seats to be added in the future. He notes if everything goes smoothly, the CRC will be ready to open its doors to the public around Christmas 2020.

Though they do not yet have hard operating cost numbers, Dyck says they are working with their finance team to keep operating costs at a manageable level.

"One of the things that we have talked about is ensuring that we are maximizing the facility. One reason why we hired a second recreation manager was to 'keep that building full' because when it is full it is being utilized and we want to see it rented. We have a lot of homework to do on that. We have preliminary costings which are a framework but now we want to drill that down and get some specific numbers."

The Community Resource Centre will be built on the same campus as the new Niverville High School and Dyck says some of the facilities will be shared. He notes they plan to sit down with the Hanover School Division shortly to discuss how the CRC can best serve local students and how the high school can best serve the community.

Read more: Niverville Gets Millions For Multiplex Project