Lights at the scenic ground on the outskirts of Scarborough were commissioned by area Assemblyman and Chief Secretary Orville London at a ceremony on Sunday night. The ground was also renamed the Eric Hovell Recreation Facility, in memory of the late Calder Hall sporting icon.
In his address at the commissioning London said it was a dream that he and others had ten years ago while discussing the utilisation of the space they were viewing from outside the community centre which will also be commissioned shortly.
He added it was thought among them at the time that it was an impossible dream and was now “heartened and proud of all those individuals who would have contributed to making this impossible dream come through and even better than what was expected”.
The facility on which an estimated $15 million was spent also has a cricket net, basketball court and playing field, adjoining the Calder Hall Strip Mall, a Y Zone that offers computer facilities and a Children’s Play Park, as well as the community centre which was in the final stages of construction.
He said in the next fiscal year the Assembly was hoping to put in changing facilities for users of the facility because it understood how difficult it was to have a quality facility without having an opportunity to change and it will be needed more with the presence of the pupils of the two nearby primary schools. The THA also plans to install floodlights at 15 fields.
“Calder Hall can boast that except for Signal Hill there is no other community in Tobago and maybe in Trinidad and Tobago where there were so many facilities in such a small space,” London added.