Park board urges city to move forward

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/03/2022 (1429 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Almost eight months after Brandon City Council voted to save the Park Community Centre from demolition, the facility’s board of directors is urging the city to make progress on necessary repairs.

“The issues at Park have been very well-identified, and it is past time to put out tenders and allow our construction industry to respond,” the centre’s secretary-treasurer, Colleen Sigurdson, said in a news release issued Wednesday.

“We do not want to miss yet another construction season. It would frankly be unreasonable to do so. Honestly, our distressed and disadvantaged downtown residential core area needs Park Community Centre back to full capacity now.”

The letter also said delays in the process to repair the building have harmed public trust in the city and work should be progressed in the interest of “accountability, transparency and responsible government.”

After years of deteriorating conditions at the centre that included structural, mechanical and electrical issues, city administration issued a report in December 2019 recommending it be demolished.

That started a back-and-forth argument between proponents of the centre and members of city council and administration that weren’t keen on the price tag to rehabilitate the centre.

Finally, in July 2021, Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) marshalled enough support among his colleagues to vote in favour of soliciting proposals to repair or entirely replace the centre.

Since then, there has appeared to be little movement on the project.

“To keep the facility and keep it going is so beneficial for the community, is one point,” Sigurdson said Thursday. “There’s also the fact that it’s such a wonderful facility for the community … we need to get it out to tender so we can get some budget numbers.”

While the issues at the centre have kept it from being used at capacity, it is still being utilized. Recently, the Park Community Centre hosted an art sale to raise funds for relief efforts in Ukraine.

One of Sigurdson’s concerns is the longer it takes for work to be completed and get full capacity for events back, the harder it will be to get the project off the ground.

“It’s been with city council for a long time,” she said. “We need to get this going, this can’t wait any longer.”

That message was communicated to Mayor Rick Chrest earlier this month. In a letter addressed to him dated March 21 and signed by Sigurdson — of which a copy was provided to the Sun — the board urged progress on the project.

“Both yourself and the majority of city council have acted with integrity on this matter, but we need the marketplace to be invited to bid on completing the work identified,” reads the letter, which Chrest told the Sun on Thursday was hand-delivered to him on Tuesday.

“Only when tender bids are received will council have the accurate numbers and information needed to proceed. Indeed, it is not unreasonable for us to demand what has been sought since 2019, and towards which our community has been working in what we accepted as an honest partnership with city.”

According to the mayor, he understands the board’s frustration but said behind the scenes work to prepare a tender has been going on for a while.

“Primarily, it’s because the project is not without its complications,” Chrest said. “Last summer, council did pass a motion, so council has been convinced by the Park Community Centre board and the community that we ought to endeavour to have a community centre facility in that location … administration have been working on it.”

Council’s request for administration to examine the feasibility of repairing, renovating or entirely replacing the facility is a large part of the complexity when it comes to issuing a tender because of a wide range of possible outcomes, Chrest added.

Another complicating factor is the state of the aging building, with the mayor saying that additional engineering studies have revealed more problems relating to structural issues.

“Anything can be overcome. It’s just a matter of money,” Chrest said. “As always, council needs to be judicious with taxpayers’ dollars and not throwing good money after bad. We need to make sure whatever method we pick is going to be a sound use of funds and yields a proper, long-lasting facility for the community that can last years and years into the future.”

On March 22, the mayor said council held an informal meeting before it was aware of the community centre board’s thoughts where the issue was discussed.

The intent is still to proceed with the project. Chrest wasn’t sure when it would appear at council, but said the centre would appear on an upcoming agenda “to clarify and reconfirm the issuing of the [request for proposals].”

Brandon City Council’s next meeting is on Monday at 7 p.m. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started, members of the public will be able to attend the meeting in person.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark