The Civic Centre, located on Centre Street and 2nd Avenue, is the proposed relocation of Town Hall.
However, many renovations need to be done to the existing building, and the Town of Drumheller is looking to the help of inmates of the Drumheller Institution to start the demolition process on the interior.
“We talked about an overall construction budget. However what was not discussed in that budget was basically the demolishing of the interior walls. The question to ask is if the Town of Drumheller is ready to move forward and have the demolition done, with the Town providing supervision, through the labour of the Drumheller Institution,” said Ray Romanetz, Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Drumheller, during the regular Council meeting of August 13.
Romanetz and Al Kendrick, Infrastructure Services Director for Drumheller, met with the Institution several times to work out an agreement.
“We are pleased to say that the acting warden has identified this as being an eligible project as long as the work is done through the Town of Drumheller,” said Romanetz.
Through this program, the Institution would offer four to six inmates to carry out the demolition process said Romanetz. He said the Town would pay them an honorarium of $10 per day and it would take approximately six to eight weeks to finish the initial stages of renovations in the Civic Centre.
With the demolition complete, it would mean that hopefully by the first of September, the Town will be in a position to put the construction project out for tender, said Romanetz.
He said construction would then most likely begin in October of this year.
“The estimated costs including the demolition work within the construction contract would have been about $200,000. With the help of inmates, this cost would likely be from $25,000 to $30,000,” said Romanetz. “So otherwise significantly less.”
The Town of Drumheller decided to go forth with the interior demolition process of the Civic Centre through the labour program of the Drumheller Institution.
