Glendale Community Hall Update
by Chris Welner, President, GGMCA
It’s been a year since our community hall was shut down by a serious sewage flood, but we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel to get the hall fully back open this spring. The restoration and rebuild of the hall has been a complex process with hundreds of volunteer hours going into the project so far.
When the flood happened, it was evident right away the damage was serious, and it would take all the resources we could muster to make things right again. The clean-up alone cost more than $90,000. It involved removing all the flooring, cabinets, fixtures, and two feet of drywall throughout the main hall and the Glendale Community Preschool. Restoration and repair work has been valued at approximately $200,000. Those losses have been covered by insurance. We were able to restore and refurbish the preschool in time for its opening last September and parents and teachers have been very pleased with the new space.
Another major part of this project relates to the lifecycle needs of the hall. Every five years, The City of Calgary hires consultants to evaluate the condition of our infrastructure. They examine everything from top to bottom, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems, inside and outside the hall. Deficiencies are noted and a price tag is attached to them. Glendale’s most recent lifecycle report identified $1.6 million that will need to be invested in the community property over the next 10 to 20 years.
With the hall torn apart, it made sense to conduct the lifecycle repairs due within the next three to five years at the same time as insurance repairs are being made now. It did not make sense to put back decades-old urinals, toilets, and taps, or to do thousands of dollars of drywall repair only to cut into it a year or two later to upgrade our fire detection system. Lifecycle repairs are funded based on applications the community makes to The City of Calgary’s Capital Conservation Grant (CCG) program and the Alberta government’s Community Facilities Enhancement Program (CFEP). The City funds roughly 75 per cent of the work and the Province funds about 25 per cent. These granting processes are incredibly thorough and take a significant amount of time to see through until cheques are finally written. We recently received $108,000 from the CCG program and hope to hear the outcome of our provincial application very early in 2022. We are also awaiting an engineering report and recommendation on the building’s 30-year-old heating, cooling, and air exchange (HVAC) system, which needs to be replaced. Every one of these steps adds to the project timeline.
From the beginning, our board has taken a positive outlook. This disaster gave us an opportunity to look to the future to see how the building design could be optimized. The main hall and foyer have been joined together with better coat storage and it will feature a new main entry door. The kitchen and boardroom have both been expanded and we are adding a new accessible washroom where the old janitor’s closet used to be.
It will all add up to the best space possible for user groups and people who rent the hall for functions such as weddings and receptions. But most of all, we want the hall to be a welcoming centre for our community—for Glendale residents. Through generous donations and our I Love Glendale cash raffles, we have been able to raise more than $10,000 that will help pay for special extras to help create a welcoming atmosphere for kids play times, coffee gatherings, wine tastings, cards and Scrabble, or family movie nights.
We know it has been a difficult time for many of us this past year. Glendale has not been able to host our user groups, the parent and tots play times, along with so many missed rental opportunities. But if you peer through the hall’s glass doors, you will see construction in full swing. We can’t wait to see its completion so we can invite our entire community for a celebration to see the fruits of our labours and to start using this wonderful community space, today and for decades into the future. Stay tuned!
While the community hall may not be useable right now, many of our community members are taking advantage of our grounds, sledding, and skating on a sunny winter’s day.
