Park centre safe for now

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This article was published 08/03/2023 (972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Park Community Centre saga is literally heading back to the drawing board.

Brandon City Council voted unanimously Monday evening to reject existing bids for the demolition of the current Park Community Centre building and construction of a new one so the city can explore the possibility of a new design for a replacement.

That design and an estimated cost would then be sent out as a second request for proposals for contractors to bid on. In the meantime, those who support having a centre at the site can rest assured the current building won’t be demolished, one councillor said.

“We’re not killing this thing, but as mentioned by several councillors, there’s still some work to be done,” Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) said to the applause of more than 40 Park Community Centre supporters gathered in council chambers.

Monday’s developments are the latest in a three- to four-year saga surrounding the facility, which is located on the 1400 block of Louise Avenue. In 2019, council approved a plan to demolish and replace the centre with a green space, aligning with the city’s recreation master plan. Two years later, it reversed its decision.

The fate of the decaying community centre returned to the council table Monday night after council, at its Feb. 6 meeting, deferred a decision on whether to follow a recommendation made by city administration to reject bids for the demolition of the current centre and construction of a new one due to lack of funds in the parks reserve.

The city had set aside $1.2 million, but the lowest bid came in at $1.5 million including contingencies, leaving a $300,000 shortfall. Based on comments from councillors, it appears the bids came in higher than expected because the RFP requested a new building that could handle the same capacity as the old one could in its prime. But new building requirements forced such a building to be bigger than expected and increased costs.

The proposed motion brought an angry reaction from supporters of rebuilding a community centre on the same site. They believed a council vote in favour would effectively doom the centre to demolition with no replacement, as originally proposed by the city’s recreation master plan.

Supporters packed council chambers Monday evening to make a final pitch to ensure a building would remain part of their neighbourhood, arguing that a community centre is a venue for life events such as wedding socials and would help the city meet its goal to revitalize downtown.

“It is something that I implore you please consider to revitalize downtown Brandon and rebuild the Park Community Centre,” resident Wanda-Leigh Rains told council. “Downtown is the heart of Brandon.”

On Monday, council did follow that advice and rejected the bids, but not before amending the motion to say it would explore the possibility of issuing a second request for proposals based on a “design, bid, build” method that would give it more control over the design and include an estimate of the cost before it goes out for bidding.

The motion approved by council also included an amendment to protect the existing building from demolition, at least until the new RFP returned for council for review.

Berry and Coun. Barry Cullen (Ward 3) explained the original bids had to be rejected, otherwise the city would be stuck building a centre that didn’t fit its needs.

Berry said approving one of the bids would mean the city would be building a 4,000-square-foot building, which wasn’t what it intended.

“We need to start back with square one again,” Berry said. “We need to go back, we need to do a design, we need to do a tender for a build and do it properly.

“As council, if we’re not clear enough as to exactly what we want, then that’s on us, but I think we’re going to be very, very clear what we want and there shouldn’t be any misinterpretation of what we’re looking for if we do this.”

A number of councillors expressed support for the idea that any new centre should include a daycare as a way to provide financial stability, whether that was at the time of the building’s completion or part of a later addition.

Cullen noted that the city’s general manager of development services, Mark Allard, had just told council at the meeting that the current design wasn’t ideal for a daycare.

He said he believes the downtown ward does need a community centre, but the idea the building should be 4,200 square feet needs to be re-examined. He suggested — similar to how other community centres might have a pool or rink as a focus — Park’s focus, or brand, could be music and include a stage.

Cullen noted this or future councils will be faced with similar decisions down the line as many community centres are reaching the age of their usefulness.

“You guys need to know that when this thing goes, it’s going to be a state-of-the-art little community centre,” Cullen said to Park centre supporters. “It’s going to be the prototype for what’s going to happen next.”

Coun. Kris Desjarlais, whose Ward 2 is home to Park Community Centre, said residents would accept a smaller facility than the one that was proposed as long as it assured there would be a centre.

The decision to add the “design, bid, build” amendment was based on advice from Allard, who said council may get better results than the “design and bid” method that was used to secure the original proposals. He said the “design, bid, build” method would give council and others a say in the design so they receive exactly what they are looking for. The city would then have a reasonable estimate of the cost for that design and it could then move forward with receiving bids.

This amendment would mean the request for proposals would return to council before it is issued to receive bids.

“The bottom line is that this council will own this going forward,” Mayor Jeff Fawcett said.

City manager Ron Bowles said the next steps would be that administration would seek the input of council and the Park centre board on what they want to see in a new centre.

Council would still have to decide whether to proceed with a new building.

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