Council hears Park repair proposal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/06/2021 (1725 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A possible plan for fixing the many issues that plague the Park Community Centre was presented to Brandon City Council at its regular meeting on Monday.

Centre board chair Jennifer Moes and Gillian Sullivan of Sneath Projects outlined a possible path to restoring the facility to use after it sat nearly dormant due to numerous issues in need of repair.

The city would have to open a tendering process for businesses to bid on the work, but Moes and Sullivan gave a presentation in an attempt to show council that repairing the facility would be more economical than demolishing or replacing it.

Explaining further, Sullivan said she knew the city would have to go to a tender process for the work, but she was happy to help the centre’s board develop a work proposal to prove it can be done. She said that her family lives about a block away from the centre and has used it for everything from birthday parties to Beyblade tournaments over the years.

“The Park Community Centre is a big part of our lives,” Sullivan said.

According to Moes, the Manitoba Metis Federation recently asked about setting up a summer program at the centre. While repairing the building this year would prevent that from happening, she said it was nice to see that there is still a desire to use the facility.

Fixing it up wouldn’t just enable events to be held at the centre. Moes said that there are people who live behind the building who could make use of it as a drop-in centre and public washroom.

A large part of the work would involve replacing the floor, which has been compromised by structural issues. Sullivan said her proposal would involve ripping the current floor out and pouring a concrete base that would be tied into the walls.

Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes) said he’d made a recent visit to the centre and was worried about the condition of the foundation, which looked in poor shape while he was investigating the crawlspace.

The proposed work for fixing the floor would in effect create a new foundation for the building, Sullivan said. To replace the floor, almost the entire west wall of the building would have to be cut out. After being replaced, the whole exterior would be re-stuccoed.

Given the current age of the structure, Coun. Shaun Cameron (University) wondered what lifespan the work would add. According to Sullivan, it would add 50 to 100 years of life to the centre, roughly the same as a new house.

With improvements to heating, lighting, plumbing and more included in the proposal, Coun. Jan Chaboyer (Green Acres) wanted to know if the operating costs for the centre would go down. She was told the more efficient equipment would likely reduce costs and the project would also be able to apply for grants from Efficiency Manitoba.

Mayor Rick Chrest wanted to know if Sneath Projects’ review of the centre looked into bringing the building up to code. Sullivan said her company’s proposal includes accessible doors, wheelchair-accessible ramps and a reworking of a back area to create an accessible washroom.

While a price for the work was not specified either during the council meeting or in documents provided with the agenda for it, the written proposal included with the agenda states that Sneath Projects would be willing to complete part of the work at no cost in exchange for a charitable donation receipt.

The mayor said council would likely ask city administration to review the presentation and come back with their own analysis soon.

“This is one of our more challenging decisions we face in the coming months,” Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) said after the presentation. “It’s great to have all the evidence and all the options on the table in front of us when we deliberate this decision in front of the public in the not-too-distant future.”

Also giving a presentation was Coun. Bruce Luebke (South Centre), who spoke on behalf of the city’s poverty committee.

He said the province recently gave a presentation to the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association, indicating the Canada-Manitoba Housing Benefit would be providing rent supplements to people through three streams: youth, homelessness and mental health.

However, the homelessness stream is currently only available in Winnipeg with a plan to extend to other communities in the next two to three years.

Seeing a need in Brandon, the poverty committee passed a motion at its May 12 meeting asking Brandon City Council to write a letter to the province asking for the expansion to be accelerated.

A pilot project starting in 2017 helped 48 families and individuals with rent, which the committee believes shows a local need for regular funding.

“I just want to say that I feel that sometimes our community is falling through the cracks when it comes to some of the initiatives being put forward with the Province of Manitoba to deal with some of the social issues, whether it’s homelessness, addiction or mental health issues,” Luebke said.

“I think we as council need to encourage the Province of Manitoba to get more involved on initiatives occurring in our city and in rural Manitoba.”

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark