Town Hall moving downtown
“The existing Town Hall is in the old provincial court house in a residential neighbourhood. With the construction of the Badlands Community Facility scheduled to open the fall of 2011, the library and other tenants will be moving out of the civic centre building, which is located downtown. Once vacated the Town Hall will be relocated into the civic centre, which is two floors and 13,500 square feet,” was stated in the background information of the document.
Mayor Terry Yemen said the request is for the design of the new building. He sees it as a positive step to relocate the Town Hall.
“What I really like is it (the Civic Centre) is handicapped accessible,” said Yemen, adding to renovate the existing Town Hall to make it more accessible would be too costly.
“Accessibility is major, and I do think Town Hall should be downtown,” he said.
Last summer a new parking area was created near the Civic Centre to accommodate the move. Yemen adds money has been put aside in the budget for the proposal.
The existing Town Hall is the former Drumheller Courthouse, which was built in the mid 50’s. It was contracted to be built by Buchanan Construction of Edmonton for $242,038. It was Alberta’s second post war courthouse. Town Hall moved into the space shortly after the Courthouse moved to its new location on 3rd Avenue in 1984. At the time it was a controversial decision because the town gave up revenue from the province in the form of taxes in lieu.
Michael Roy, Director of Corporate Services for the Town of Drumheller said there is more usable room at the Civic Centre as much of the floor space of the existing town hall is eaten up by stairways.
Yemen said the existing Town Hall could still be utilized. Recently community groups approached the Town of Drumheller about the possibility of acquiring the former Central School for community groups to utilize. Yemen said the existing Town Hall might be better suited for such uses.
“It is certainly something as council, we’ll be looking at. We need space and the Badlands Community Facility cannot facilitate everybody, so I think it is a good option, there will be more discussion on it,” said Yemen.
The proposal call for designing the building to accommodate a council chamber, office space for Corporate Services, CAO’s office and support staff, a councillors room and Community Services space. The design would result in a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification.
The request for proposals close May 5.
