Nomads may lose home field to new North End police station

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This article was published 24/05/2017 (2526 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local amateur football team’s stadium has emerged as the leading candidate to be the site of the new North End police station.

Coun. Ross Eadie said the finance committee of the Winnipeg Police Board was recently given a presentation by the Winnipeg Police Service outlining two sites on the Old Exhibition Grounds as the final options for a replacement police station, with Charlie Krupp Stadium — which fronts on McPhillips Street opposite McPhillips Station Casino — as the likely preferred location.

“A new police station needs access to a thoroughfare, and the only option is the Charlie Krupp Stadium,” Eadie (Mynarksi) said.

The Old Exhibition Grounds is a 44-acre, civic-owned recreational site north of the CPR lines, between McPhillips and Sinclair streets, which includes the football stadium, a decommissioned hockey arena, baseball diamonds, a soccer field and an area informally used as an off-leash dog park.

Eadie said the arena site on the Old Ex grounds is the other option under consideration for the police station but he believes its inclusion is misleading because it doesn’t have access to a roadway and the police would never accept it. He said he was told police expect to open the new station in July 2019.

The North Winnipeg Nomads, a local amateur football club, fielding six teams for more than 300 area youths between the ages of seven and 22, has been leasing the football stadium and adjoining facilities from the city since 1997. Before the Nomads, the stadium had been home to the Hawkeyes junior football team.

As a non-profit group, the Nomads pay a nominal $1 annual fee to lease the stadium facilities but are responsible for its maintenance.

Jeffery Pirrie, president of the Winnipeg North Nomads, said he was unaware the WPS had been eyeing the stadium site for a new police station.

“I can’t believe it. My heart skipped a beat,” Pirrie said. “I hope it doesn’t happen.”

Pirrie said the Nomads is a vital part of the North End. The team, he said, has invested heavily into the stadium facility, including the construction of a new clubhouse and improvements to the stadium.

“It would be a shame if it came down that,” Pirrie said. “They would be taking football away from 300 kids, and that would be a shame.”

Coun. Mike Pagtakhan, whose Point Douglas ward includes the Old Ex grounds, confirmed the stadium is one of two options on the property that have been offered to the police as the location of a new police station.

However, Pagtakhan said he was surprised Eadie went public with the information at this time.

“No one’s ever told me that there was a plan to definitively choose one particular option and it’s going to happen immediately,” Pagtakhan said. “There’s going to be a public engagement piece first, before anything happens, and that hasn’t happened yet.”

A new police station to replace the Hartford Avenue station has been on the drawing board for several years, with construction repeatedly pushed back because of the delays and rising costs associated with the new Graham Avenue police headquarters.

Council had approved $23 million for a replacement station, with $3 million set aside for the purchase and or remediation of land and $20 million for design, planning and construction costs. The city hopes to save money by using a similar design that had been chosen for both the east and west police stations.

At Wednesday’s council meeting, Eadie raised the likely demolition of the Charlie Krupp football stadium to make way for a new police station during Mayor Brian Bowman’s question period portion of the meeting. Bowman told Eadie he was unaware of the issue but would look into it.

Coun. John Orlikow, chairman of council’s property and development committee, said Thursday he was unaware of any plans to place the new police station on the Old Ex grounds or that it might involve the demolition of the football stadium.

The WPS declined to comment on the project and referred questions to city hall. A civic spokeswoman said police are still considering site options, including the Old Ex property, and have not made a decision on where to build the replacement station.

“As part of any site selection process, the city will be conducting public engagement to assess stakeholder requirements for sites being considered,” the spokeswoman said. “Final site selection will be based on a cost-benefit analysis that includes consideration of stakeholder requirements.”

Pagtakhan said he had been approached by the WPS, who told him they were considering options on the Old Ex grounds as a location for the replacement North End police station.

Pagtakhan said he told police several community groups use various facilities on the site, including the Nomads organization, and that police should hold community consultations before making a choice.

“It’s in the best interests of the Winnipeg Police Service to ensure there is a robust public engagement with the resident association, the various stakeholders that utilize the Old Exhibition grounds,” Pagtakhan said.

Neighbourhood stakeholder groups will be involved with police and other civic departments in planning how the new station would be incorporated into the community at the Old Ex grounds, he said.

Pagtakhan said he told police whichever location is chosen, the affected community group had to be compensated for loss of access to recreational facilities.

“As the ward councillor, if they are going to be utilizing a piece of land that is occupied by a certain group, that group cannot lose any step in their operation,” Pagtakhan said. “If the station is going to go (on the football stadium site), they’ve got to ensure there is no disruption in their operation and their season and registration, their winter and summer programming, and that they have a new facility built before any work happens on the existing facility.”

Pirrie said he called Pagtakhan Thursday after learning of the possibilty the stadium could be demolished to make way for a new police station.

“He told me not to worry about it because it’s just one of the sites under consideration,” Pirrie said.

Eadie said he’s concerned that, despite assurances from Pagtakhan, the Krupp stadium will be demolished without a new facility built to replace it.

“There is no money to build a new stadium,” Eadie said.

He said officials in the property and development department considered and rejected at least three other properties as potential locations for a replacement police station, including the old Carling Breweries property at Redwood and Main; Winnipeg Transit’s North Garage at 1520 Main St., and the former Safeway/Co-Op grocery building at 1441 Main.

“I was told several months ago that the Old Ex site is the only site” under consideration, Eadie said, adding he wasn’t aware at the time civic officials were looking at two options on the property. Eadie said he assumed, wrongly, a new police station would be built elsewhere on the site.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca