Community Centre
Published December 6, 2006
On November 21, 2006 Council approved the construction of a new Community Centre to be part of the Centre in the Park complex. While this has been somewhat overshadowed by the final selection of the site for the new hospital, it may be that the Community Centre will have a more significant long term impact upon Strathcona County. It may also generate more controversy.
Whatever we think of ourselves today, fifty years ago, Strathcona was a rural, agricultural municipality containing a dormitory hamlet intended to serve Edmonton housing needs. Since those early days, Strathcona has been attempting to redefine itself as a true community with a sense of cohesion and belonging. To a great extent we have succeeded and those of us who have lived here for a quarter century or more can see, or rather, feel the difference. The Community Centre is an important part of that process and perhaps the ultimate piece of the puzzle needed to define a true heart of the community.
At nearly $100 million, this is a very expensive project. While we hope to access grant funding from other orders of government, there is no denying that much of the money will come directly from municipal taxes. There had better be more to it than the desire to showcase community spirit. And there is. There are sound business reasons for undertaking this project. The library's lease will expire in a few years. County buildings are full to capacity and rarely a month goes by without the conversion of meeting rooms and other utility areas into office space for new employees. In addition, the community expects facilities for art, cultural and recreational activities. To meet these mushrooming needs will require more space, space that must be leased, rented, purchased or built. This is a cost-effective way of providing space. Other alternatives may be as cheap, but none are cheaper and none offer the social benefits of the Community Centre. As for timing, we have put off this project as long as we dare. Inflationary pressures will drive the price up even higher if we wait much longer.
It could be argued, and likely will be, that if we did not hire additional staff or provide additional services, we would not require the new facility. With a burgeoning population, maintaining a fixed level of administrative staffing would result in an unacceptable deterioration of service quality. Even though some of the financial burden will be transferred to future residents and their children through debt financing, current residents of the county will still be responsible for most of the cost of the project. Population growth is expensive, as this project illustrates. The alternative is to limit growth, a step we seem unwilling to contemplate.
Alan Dunn
Councillor, Ward 6
780-464-8206
dunn@strathcona.ab.ca
Last updated: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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