Foothills MD council decided against applying for a grant that could have paid for much-needed upgrades to the Red Deer Lake Community Centre.
Last week council was presented with an opportunity to apply for funding from the Canada 150 program to cover 50 per cent of the upgrades for the project.
However, it would have required the MD would to cover the remaining half of the cost, something Reeve Larry Spilak said council wasn’t ready to do given the estimated $500,000 cost for the work.
“That would mean the MD of Foothills, would have to contribute $250,000 of tax dollars to that hall, and council was not prepared to do that so we decided not to go forward with the application,” he said.
Spilak said he feels council needs to come up with a more in-depth plan for the facility before deciding to invest a significant amount of funds.
“You do come to a point where you have to re-evaluate whether a building structure should stay or whether it should be replaced or not and I think that’s where we’re at right now as a council,” he said. “So we need to determine whether or not we’re getting enough use from that facility for our MD residents…we have to make a decision as to whether or not the hall is feasible in the way it sits today.”
Spilak acknowledged that council is aware of a number of repairs the facility needs and said council is hoping to begin approving funding for those items to check them off the list one at a time.
Director of community services Ryan Payne said they’ll be bringing forward those items to council as funding becomes available.
“The exterior siding needed to be replaced, there's a skylight leaking and causing issues, there's a sound barrier that needs to be scraped off and removed and replaced, insulation needed to be added, flooring needed to replaced, walls needed to be patched and painted in the washrooms, the sinks and toilets need to be replaced,” Payne explained. “It’s an older building that was built in the mid ‘80s and it’s at that point where a lot of the key components need to be looked at and replaced.”
Red Deer Lake hall and park manager Gillian Colborne said the building has been in need of some “TLC” for some time and said she hopes the MD makes it a priority sooner than later.
“I think one of the sad things is that if you don’t take the time to make those investments then having things like say the windows then maybe then the seal starts to leak and then you're faced with a more expensive problem in 10 years that may not be fixable,” she said. “Some of the things are just big expenses up front… we’ve been looking at different ways, like increasing hall usage to help with that, but we were really counting on the MD to come through with some of the initial funding to get all the projects kick started.”
Colborne said the hall currently hosts a number of activities including yoga, weddings, birthday parties, but said it’s most important feature is to act as a community building place for people to gather.
“I think it’s very important to the area, I’m probably biased because I love this area, but I in general strongly believe that community centres are important to have around,” she said. “Because that’s how you’re able to access so many people that have a variety of different needs different wants, different budgets, and you can kind of accommodate for everyone. People can have their kids birthday party in the hall and it costs half of what it does somewhere in the city, Its just a nice sort of meeting place.”
