Rideau Heights community centre will be bright, vibrant

The $11.5-million Rideau Heights community centre is getting closer to opening its doors.

The facility is part of the Rideau Heights Regeneration Plan, a mission by the city to revitalise the north-end neighbourhood.

“There really was a big dividing line, with the railroad tracks and Division Street,” said Laura Carter, Kingston-Frontenac Public Library director of branch experience. “We’ve really never served the North End of the city in these neighbourhoods very well.”

A new branch of the Kingston-Frontenac Public Library will be part of the community hub, which Carter calls “a welcoming and whimsical space.”

“It’s really bright, and it’s going to be very vibrant,” Carter said. “But at the same time, it’s going to be quite calming with the colours. We’re part of the community hub, but we’re also a little bit separate.”

In addition to the library branch, the community hub will have a number of meeting rooms, and a fully accessible, commercial-grade kitchen, where community groups like “Loving Spoonful” will offer cooking classes to neighbourhood residents.

The community centre’s gymnasium will have a poured floor surface, which the city’s Manager of Recreation Facilities, Adam McCluskey, said is more resistant than a traditional hardwood floor. In fact, the city used the same surface at Artillery Park.

“The full-sized gymnasium, I think, is going to be beautiful when it’s done,” McCluskey said.

The opening date for the Rideau Heights Community Centre is April 21.