Town plans new building

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Council’s focus on addressing the shortcomings of the current municipal building, where at-capacity and structural issues have contributed to health and safety concerns, has given rise to a proposed multi-million dollar one-stop-shop town hall facility – a proposal whose location has angered some of Strathmore’s residents.
For years, roughly 80 full time permanent town employees have been working from five different rented locations, including temporary trailers behind municipal hall, where fees and expenses are racking up a $1 million price tag over 10 years.
In 2011, then-council decided to place expansion and enhancement of its current municipal building at the top of its strategic list, resulting in the proposal of a 24,000 sq. ft. two-storey building to be sited in the parking lot at the north end of Kinsmen Park.
Town employees working on the project said the space would provide the building with a central Strathmore location, address much-needed amenities such as washrooms and concession, and hopefully mitigate undesirable activity that’s been complained about by nearby residents.
“We talk about the building itself and what it needs to be,” said Rob Roycroft, project lead for the Community Vitalization Project Town Hall and Kinsmen Park Enhancements. “Well, it’s our governance spot, it needs to be rooted in Strathmore and not something that’s artificial; and it needs to look forward to the future because it’s going to be here for a long time.
“Were not trying to take away from Kinsmen Park, we’re trying to help Kinsmen Park. Some of the things we talked about being needed in Kinsmen Park were a concession, washrooms, places where people might be able to change, put skates on in the winter and things like that.
“Council is always open for comments from the public; their idea started in 2011 (and) money was borrowed in 2017, so this is not something new. This is something that has been progressing slowly and deliberately. Rather than just launch with building something, we took a long time to look at what we need, what do people do and who do they work closely with, and how can we serve the public the best. All of that stuff went through before we even started to think about how big of a building we need, and we got good, solid information.”
Roycroft said other locations in Strathmore had been considered, as well as upgrading the existing town hall which would cost upwards of $1 million just for upgrades without the expansion.
Town of Strathmore owns all the land in Kinsmen Park and its parking lot, besides a parcel of land in front of the pavilion that had been sold to a developer a few years ago and was never developed.
The Community Vitalization Project includes the new municipal building across the street from the King Eddy Pub that will accommodate growth for the next 10 to 15 years with a municipal building that also contains a municipal plaza with access to the water, council chambers and offices, and roughly 2,000 sq. ft. of its space to make up concessions and washrooms for the public. To address the loss of parking, the town is proposing developing the east side of Kinsmen Park by the treeline to provide another access to the park, community events and markets.
Furthermore, the town is expecting to spend an additional nearly $1.5 million on Kinsmen Park enhancements with ideas including an expansion to the Lions splash park, enhanced ball diamonds, outdoor exercise equipment, community gardens, beach volleyball, disc golf pitch and putt, BMX or small bike track and additional park furniture. Further public engagement for that project is taking place in January.
While director of the Kinsmen Club of Strathmore, Doug Taylor, is in favour of the enhancements to the park, he, along with other members of the club, are not convinced and are taking issue with the town moving their municipal building onto the park’s parking lot.
“It should make all the people in town angry, it’s their park, and the town has plenty of room where they are now; they just took out the water tank and they can build a two-storey building there,” Taylor said.
“I’m very enthusiastic about the changes and enhancements they want to make at Kinsmen Park but I’m dead set against – as are the club members I’ve spoken to – giving up the parking lot. Go across the street and put it into Lambert Park. No offence to Lambert Park, it’s pretty and nice, but no one uses it. The purpose was to give the people a park, not to give the town a nice location.”
The town is expecting the municipal building project to cost a total of $7.5 million with $4.5 million of the funds coming from provincial funds and $3 million from the remaining amount of the $6 million borrowing bylaw that was borrowed in 2016. Seniors housing is also high on council’s list of strategic priorities and the town is in discussions of using the current existing town hall site, which is a 4.5-acre parcel of land and houses the town office building that currently contains mould, asbestos and structural issues, for the community’s benefits that could include future senior housing, hospice care and Handi-bus.
Tom Sadler, long-time Strathmore resident and member of the Western District Historical Society, attended the town’s open house on Dec. 4, and while he said the town is doing their due diligence by reaching out to the public ahead of time, he is concerned about changes he’s seen to Kinsmen Park over the years.
“There’s good and bad to it and I have my reservations on it, as I’ve been familiar with Kinsmen Park all my life. I’d like to see it stay as it is basically, but it seems like it gets whittled away at and gets smaller from year to year to year,” Sadler said. “They’re still in the early stages and are not going to have a conceptual plan until January. They’ve invited public input fairly early on which I think is a good thing.”
Mayor Pat Fule also announced in a press release that much more discussion and public engagement is required before finalizing details for the new town hall space, including input from user groups and community partners such as the Kinsmen Club of Strathmore. The project is expected to start construction in summer of 2019 and be completed the following year.