Dome construction... two now? More?

The Westbrook Dome group put out a press release this past Thursday afternoon stating that construction on their dome has begun anew. This is the dome project taking place at the Westbrook Golf Club on Westbrook Road off of Highway 2 a few kilometres east of Odessa.

A second dome project is in the works in Loyalist Township near the intersection of Taylor-Kidd Boulevard and County Road 6 (a few kilometres south of Odessa).

In the Westbrook Dome release, owner Ken Harnden noted that "Ultimately this project is about providing a much needed indoor sport facility to players in Kingston, as well as creating new jobs and growing our business. We are glad that we now have our building permit in hand and can truly focus on plans to open the dome." He continued stating, “much of the site work was completed last fall and as a result we are able to jump right in and pick up construction where we left off.” The Whig-Standard printed a more detailed story later the same day. 

The dome project has faced a number of delays but the dome is expected to be complete and open by the start of October, despite operations manager Marco Smits' comments that "One thing I have learned is to be a little bit cautious with timelines."

The pre-engineered building that will include dressing rooms, offices, a shop, and cafe is expected to arrive on site today in four pieces that will be assembled shortly. The foundation will be poured and cured next with dome being built in August, and the turf installed in September.

In the meantime, there have been rumblings out of Loyalist Township where some of the council officials have questioned the value of having a soccer dome in the area, especially as there have been very few comments of support from soccer players in the area. The Loyalist Township office, like any municipal office, takes comments about all types of projects and forwards them on to the council members. Their office can be reached by phone at 613-386-7351 and found online at http://www.loyalist.ca/

There are also continued rumblings of work planned for the new turf field at the John Machin complex near  Highways 15 and 401 that would include proper footings installed for a possible dome erection there, similar to what is done in Toronto at Lamport Stadium, and Varsity Stadium by the City of Toronto and University of Toronto respectively. This came up originally in mid-March 2013 when city staff made the recommendation to Council about finding a third party to run a dome.