Turner Valley town council said the financial plan for the proposed community centre is unsustainable.

Turner Valley Coun. Garry Pollock, left, and Mayor Dona Fluter stand at the seven-acre site the Town has designated for the new library and community centre, which overlooks Royalite Millennium Park to the current Legion. Construction will begin imminently on the library, however, Fluter and Pollock say the current plan for the community centre is not financially sustainable and must be restructured. photo by Tamara Neely

On Nov. 23 council reviewed the business case prepared by IBI Consulting on behalf of Diamond Valley Centre 78 Society. Council told the society it lacked financial data and the information it did give presented a picture of a financially unsustainable project. They invited the society to revise the document and said they would make a final decision on the issue on Nov. 30.

The society delivered a revised financial plan to council on Nov. 30, but council decided they didn’t have enough time to comprehensively review the document and won’t until spring.

“It’s too much information to consider. We couldn’t possibly go through it in one evening,” said Turner Valley Coun. Garry Pollock.

Getting started on building a new library is taking priority over assessing the community centre financial plan.

“Tomorrow morning we’re going to come up with a proposal for the timing of the library project,” Pollock said on Monday. “We’re going to focus on the standalone library and we’re running out of time to get that project off the ground.”

The library had been awarded a time-sensitive grant and the Town is under pressure to get the project started, Pollock said.

Mayor Dona Fluter said the reason council wanted to address the society’s financial plan for the community centre is because the community centre concept previously included the library. Once the Town was awarded a federal-provincial matching grant of $1.9 million for a new library, however,  the Town took over managing the library portion of the project.

The idea was to build the library with the community centre in mind.

However, time is running out for the Town to get started on the new library and they can’t wait on the society to keep pace with the community centre development any longer, Fluter said.

“We have to be done (construction of the library) by March 31, 2011 or there will be repercussions. That’s when the funding runs out and they (the federal and provincial governments) will say, ‘You’re on your own for the rest of the bills,’” said Fluter. “We can’t endorse the (society’s) plan as it is now, so we’re going to proceed with a standalone library.

“The fact that the society has been set back, I’m sorry about that, but they will have an opportunity to redevelop the plan.”

Diamond Valley Centre 78 Society chair Tyler Bray said he is frustrated with the Town’s treatment of the community centre project. He said he doesn’t understand why the Town views the plan as un-sustainable. From his perspective, it is sustainable, it is affordable and it will turn a profit.

“It’s bizarre, the statements coming out of the Town. It’s disheartening,” said Bray. “The plan is to not borrow or mortgage money for this facility. This facility will be built on donations, grants and fundraising. So at the end of the day, when that building goes up, it’ll be 100 per cent paid for.”

The rental rates for long-term tenants and for residents wanting to use the hall were developed by researching the community centre rates of 10 Alberta municipalities of equivalent size as well as rates in Calgary, he said.

“Our rates (would be) lower than both Calgary and Okotoks,” said Bray. “We fleshed it out over 10 years and we showed the centre (would make) an excess of $300,000.”

He said his frustration also comes from having asked the Town, over the past two and a half years, for a written lease agreement to confirm the verbal agreement of $1 per year for 99 years.

In the meantime, the society has fundraised, paid a consultant to prepare the business case, for architectural drawings and the application costs for two successful grants totaling $2.4 million. The grants were awarded specifically for the new library: $500,000 was awarded to the society while $1.9 was awarded to the Town.

He said it seems like the Town has been keeping the society involved in order to access the $500,000 in the society’s name, but has no real interest in helping to build the community centre.

“The society stepped up to the plate to build Centre 78 and include the library (in addition to a new home for the Legion and a community hall to replace the Flare ‘n’ Derrick). The Town has been handed $2.4 million on a platter and they’re throwing it back in our face,” said Bray. “We did all the work, we paid for everything and they’re throwing it back in our face.

“They’re saying, ‘Thanks very much for the money for the library, now go away.’”

tneely@okotoks.greatwest.ca

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