Red Deer City Council continues to plan for the 2019 Canada Winter Games, their most recent stride is for the creation of the Canada Games Celebration Plaza.
 
In a partnership between the City, the Games Host Society and Red Deer Public Schools, Council voted last night to purchase Central Elementary School and some land immediately west of the school for one dollar.
 
The vision for the Games Celebration Plaza is to repurpose the school and use it as the Games headquarters leading up to and during the games, and following the Games it will have lasting community benefit as a celebration space, and the future plans include relocating Culture Services to the downtown.
 
Mayor Veer says this partnership is allowing them to preserve a heritage building in the downtown, create a vibrant community centre, and a community legacy from the Games.
 
The next order of business is for City Council to approve 7.5 million dollars for the upgrades to the school, that discussion will be part of budget deliberations today and tomorrow.