Village of Standard working towards building new community hall

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

With the current community hall becoming a money pit more than anything, residents of Standard have been planning and fundraising for a new hall. The original hall was built in 1949, was made from salvaged wood, and was beginning to have a number of structural problems. 

“It’s not reasonable to put any more money into it, because it’s too small anyway and the handicap access isn’t good and its not a very well insulated building. It’s had its day,” said Susan Bragg, a member of the new hall board committee. The current hall is no longer equipped to meet the needs of the village. The hall is used for all public events, for everything from weddings to community dinners, and the need for a bigger, more secure place has grown over the years. The bathrooms and kitchen in the current hall are in the basement of the building, making it inaccessible for some people, which is another thing the committee wants to eliminate. They would look to see the hall as a safe, secure, accessible place for all residents.  

There is another reason the committee wants to see the new hall built as quickly as possible.

“We want it to be a disaster centre for the whole area with a full generator and everything,” said Bragg.  

For the past few years the committee has been looking into other community halls to see what other villages and towns have done right or wrong to help make their own hall the best it can be. The committee has also been looking into alternate forms of energy, such as geothermal or solar power, and they have found the best return for the money is to make sure the building is well insulated. 

“We want to make it cheap to run and easy to fix. We’ve been perfecting our design,” said Bragg. 

The committee is in the final stages of building their blueprint. They have been fundraising steadily since the inception of the idea for a new hall. There was a golf tournament held. On sports day there was a golf ball drop, an antiques and things auction along with other fundraising efforts. 

The Standard Lions club has also been instrumental in the fundraising efforts. The club already gave $300,000 to the project and recently pledged $200,000 more.  So far the committee has raised over $600,000 out of the estimated $2.6 million the new hall will cost. Until the village is within three months of being ready to build they can’t start looking at bids, so for now they are going by the estimated $2.6 million. 

“We’re just up to where we’re going to be applying for government grants and some corporate funding,” said Bragg.  

Recently the Major Facilities grant which was offered by the Alberta government was cancelled. Bragg said typically in January new grants are announced which might replace the former grant. 

“We might do a little better than we think but we’re just going to have to really fundraise and we’re hoping for next spring but if we can’t get most of our money by then, then we would have to do it the next year,” said Bragg. 

A lot in the middle of the village, close to many other amenities, has been purchased for the new 10,240 Sq. ft structure. The plan is to hopefully sell the land on which the current hall sits.