Less than six months to the 2018 Alberta Summer Games

“If you had asked me a month ago, I was quite frankly a little concerned,” said Robins, over the lack of progress noticed in the area. “We understood that with that forty-below weather, obviously, there were hiccups. Once it warmed up — I drove by one night, the lights were on and people were yelling around. They are digging pretty deep.”

Robins anticipates, that even if there is a delay, there will still be plenty of time before the Games start. At last update, the city said the structure will be built before July 19.
According to a city spokesperson, the substantial completion of the project is set for late June.

“With the extreme cold weather and snow we have experienced so far this winter, there has been interest in the status of construction of the CKC Grandstand. Our contractor confirmed today that the CKC Grandstand project is on schedule and on budget. To deal with the extreme cold in November and December and current snowfall events, the contractor brought in extra people and equipment to remove snow and provide appropriate hording, tarping and heating measures. These expenses are the contractor’s responsibility and will not affect the project cost,” they said in an email to our newsroom.

For accommodation, an athlete village is being set up by the school districts, but that leaves the out-of-town spectators and families looking for somewhere to rest. Although hotels are seeing their rooms filling up more and more due to an uptick in the economy, the organizers are planning for that.

“There is always a concern that we won’t have enough rooms. We have talked to all of the R.V. parks in town about people possibly coming up with their motorhomes, fifth wheels, and campers. Hopefully, we will have them stuffed. The whole idea of hosting this is the economic spin-off. We are hoping all of these local hotels, restaurants, campsites, and retail stores see an uptick for those four days and they understand why we are going to all of this trouble.”

For the last part of the planning process, volunteers will be putting a spotlight on the little details.

“Now we are down to the nitty-gritty, we will now have fun-filled two-hour meetings where we step through every minute [like] the way we are getting everyone in and out of the opening ceremony,” said the 2018 ASG Chair. “For the last year-and-a-half, it has been general planning meetings that are fun and exciting. Now, it will be a little boring because we have to work on the details. How do we get this many lunches to this venue for this many athletes? How do we get them to the games and back to the athlete village? The better the job we do on that; the fewer people will notice the small details and they can sit back and enjoy the games.”

As the dates come closer, Robins says they will need more volunteers. Anyone interested can go to their ASG 2018 section of the Alberta Sport website.

Support your community and gain exposure for your local business by sponsoring the 2018 Alberta Summer Games… https://t.co/fKk51SgoyU

— 2018 ASG (@2018_asg) January 23, 2018

by Justine Kelsie

Less than six months to the 2018 Alberta Summer Games

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