An open letter to mayor Nolan Crouse:
I read the article “Visual arts centre concept unveiled” (St. Albert Gazette, July 10) with disbelief. While I admit I have not reviewed recent numbers, I find this latest “stunt” by the Arts & Heritage Foundation (AHF), an organization that exists solely by the grace of St. Albert taxpayers, incomprehensible. This is an organization whose activities and programming are heavily subsidized by taxpayers. Moreover, the last time I looked at the figures, about 80 per cent of their “income” was spent on employee salaries. And yet, here they are once again, hat in hand, with the view to the city purchasing the St. Albert Community Hall and its associated lands, giving it to them, and then they would convert the hall into a “children’s art gallery,” not to mention have the taxpayers of St. Albert construct an 18-storey glass tower behind the community hall as part of the AHF’s latest multi-million dollar “pipe dream.”
To my knowledge, no talks have taken place between the St. Albert Community League and the AHF and/or the city to ascertain the league’s possible interest in even selling the site. And, as I understand, the community league has absolutely no interest in selling.
As you are aware, the St. Albert and District Community League (SACL) was founded as a society in 1939 with the objective of constructing and operating a facility to accommodate a variety of community needs and that’s exactly what it does. The league built the St. Albert Community Hall in 1940, mostly with donated materials and volunteer labour. For over 70 years, the hall has served as a focal point for the community of St. Albert for weddings, dances, parties, fundraisers and a variety of other social events. Over the years, the hall has also served as a public library, a church and a courthouse. The hall is also home to many non-profit organizations and recreational groups. Furthermore, the St. Albert Community League owns the building as well as the land the building sits on, the lot in front of the building and half of the parking lot to the east of the building. The City of St. Albert does nothing with respect to maintenance and upgrading of the building, with the exception of the $10,000 city grant received this year to upgrade the kitchen.
With all this in mind, the AHF’s latest stunt — their plan to take over the community hall and property without even talking to the community league is a very pretentious way to operate. They say they presented their plan “informally” to council a year ago. Well, that’s like running the old “end around” play in football on the community league and is akin to me calling the contractor and lining up the bulldozer before I even talk to you about whether you want to sell your house or not.
In addition, I'm also curious to see the AHF’s “needs assessment study” that indicates the City of St. Albert actually “needs” or warrants a children’s art gallery. There is a huge difference between what we might “need” as a community and what certain self-interests in this city might “want.” And it’s extremely easy for the AHF to keep wanting more and more and more, as long as the “more” continues to be purchased with someone else’s money — in this case the taxpayers of St. Albert. This, unfortunately, is the history of the AHF. I would also be extremely interested in knowing how much the art to fill an additional 10,000-plus sq. ft. of vacant space (the community hall) in their proposed expansion will cost the taxpayer? I suppose this is a minor detail for all of us taxpayers to worry about down the road when the bill comes. Then, there is also the obvious question of what we do to provide facilities to replace the services currently provided by the St. Albert Community League and the community hall? I won’t even get into that here.
Mr. Mayor, the City of St. Albert has recently “rebranded” itself as “St. Albert — Cultivating Life.” It seems to me that’s exactly what the St. Albert Community League and community hall does — it cultivates life for the citizens of St. Albert on a number of different levels. It’s far past high time, sir, for someone to finally stand up to the AHF and say “no.”
Jim Starko, St. Albert
