Christ The Redeemer school division plans to build a sports field at Drumheller's St. Anthony's school.

    To get from brown dirt to green grass at St. Anthony’s school will take over a half-a-million dollars.
    That’s the estimate Drumheller’s Town Council received from David Lunn of Christ the Redeemer School Division during Council’s regular meeting Monday, October 20.
    Lunn appeared with school division colleague Terri Dauter to speak with Council on the work required to improve St. Anthony’s School’s grounds for its 420 students by developing a football field, running track, and bleachers. The target date for completion is the end of 2016.
    “It’s the well being of the students and the school. They need a place to play outside, run around - they’ve been denied that to this point because of other massive projects that have been put on our plate. But we want to get this developed for the kids of Drumheller” said Lunn.
    The field and track would be located at the west end of the school, beyond the school’s parking lot.
    “There’s  some underground issues that we’ve got to deal with such as water coming off the back slope,” Lunn describes, adding he’s confident that the engineering report will have everything working.
    The school division is looking for community partnerships to help in the total development costs beyond just a green field to a provincial-class facility for school events and community use. That price tag comes in about a million and a half dollars.
    Upgrading the turf from grass to a fifteen-year synthetic adds $500,000. Upgrading the running track from shale to rubber would also be $500,000.
    Two provincial matching grants, if approved, would make $400,000 available to the project, and the school division is also investigating what other grants may be available.
    St. Anthony’s principal Joanne Ackerboom, teacher Gavin Makse, and school trustee Mark Chung also attended as part of the delegation, with Makse answering some questions posed by Council.
    Members of council requested clarification on what the school division would want from the Town, who would have ownership of the new field and track, and how would the public access it.