A round of applause greeted council’s decision Monday night to put an extra $900,000 towards the expansion and rehabilitation of the 50+ Club building.
About two-dozen people were on hand in the gallery to see council agree to repurpose the $900,000 from another project that had come in under budget. The additional funds brings the 50+ Club overhaul up to a $3.47-million budget from the original $2.37-million that had been planned.
“It shows city council has a true social conscious towards seniors,” said Gareth Jones, president of the 50+ Club board of directors. He said they’ve been anxious to move forward and have been meeting with city administration frequently over the past several months on the project.
He said the club members need flexibility and sustainability if the building, at 7 Taché St., is to continue to serve.
The new design seeks to make better use of the building’s space, and also adds some new multi-purpose program spaces, gives the ability to host large banquets, doubles the size of the kitchen, consolidates staff offices, ensures there are barrier-free spaces throughout the building, relocates the front entry in anticipation of the St. Anne Street realignment, and adds storage along with other rehabilitation or upgrades.
Tom Clarke, the vice-president of the board, said the unanimous approval given to the motion by council was the best news.
On the other hand, the club will have to relocate for an estimated 14 months during the renovation. The details of that are still being worked out, and Clarke said they’re hoping to keep up most of the same program offerings.
“We’re going to try and still do them all, but we won’t be able to do them in one place,” Clarke said.
Mavis McKay, the treasurer of the board, thought council had done the right thing by supporting the 50+ Club.
“I am ecstatic,” she said.
Build St. Albert director Monique St. Louis told council that the project will go out for tender in about two weeks.
Council had been forewarned that the required budget would likely be higher than originally anticipated.
This renovation was sparked by a much larger project for about $15-million that would have been called the community support centre and incorporated the club plus other organizations.
In 2013, council decided to scale back the project to just rehabilitation of the 50+ Club and expansion of the club’s program space.
St. Louis said once the project was in development they found that the existing space wasn’t particularly functional or practical, and decided to totally redesign the building. The end result is rather than an extra 6,000 square-foot addition, which was the original renovation planned, they are only adding 3,000 square feet, but an extra 4,200 square feet was found within the already existing footprint for programming by using the building more efficiently.
The budget does include nearly $200,000 for the club’s relocation costs. Councillors asked about precedent setting and were told there has been a similar situation where they had to fund lost revenue for sports clubs during the Riel field remediation.
“There’s no question at all about the need for the seniors centre,” said Coun. Sheena Hughes. However, she said she was disappointed with cost overruns.
Coun. Tim Osborne wanted to know “how much time this is buying us” before the building has to be addressed again. St. Louis said the lifecycle of this building is intended to be 10 to 15 years.
After more questions about details of the budget, council decided to go ahead.
“It may be a bit of a Band-Aid approach to this building, (but) it is a city-owned building and we are responsible for it,” said Coun. Cathy Heron.
She said administration has done an innovative job finding a way to fund the extra money, managing to not impact the overall capital budget, and she and others on council praised the work the club does and how well-used it is.
“The difference that it makes to peoples’ lives is real and it’s tangible,” said Osborne.
