While seniors were told Monday night that their drop-in centre will remain attached to the town building on 53 Street, they were cautioned their request for renovations won't be happening any time soon.
“I really don't want to see a vacant space in a beautiful $8 million building,” said Coun. Tracey Walker during council May 28. She was torn on the decision whether to let the senior drop-in centre remain where it is or vote to have it moved to the new library/learning centre.
She said while she respects the number of surveys collected and seniors that came out to lobby, she has concerns with renovating the old centre when there is a new building with an empty room that could be used.
“I am not prepared to move on that,” she said.
During council May 28, Shelley Gagnon, director of community services presented the results from 258 surveys collected during an open house May 8. Results showed 77 per cent of respondents did not want to relocate to the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre, 21 per cent were in favour of moving and two per cent were indifferent.
At the open house May 8 council explained that plans for the new library/learning centre always included housing the senior centre. Seniors have been against the move citing concerns such as the acoustics, the distance from downtown and the centre not being their own, meaning they would have to pack up their supplies when it's rented by other members of the public.
Seniors of the drop-in centre said they would like to remain where they are and have some renovations done to the current building.
Suggested renovations included taking down a wall to allow more space for birthday parties and weekly jams as well as larger bathroom space. Seniors said they felt there hadn't been enough consultation with them about the move.
Coun. Jason Heistad, part of the previous council which approved the library/learning centre build, apologized to the 10 seniors present at council May 28 for lack of communication during the planning stages.
He said council “would be silly not to listen” to the survey, with the majority of respondents asking to remain at the current location.
“The message to us is that better communication and planning is needed. If we're looking at a future plan we need to be on the same page.”
Coun. Derek Baird agreed with Heistad, saying that “with previous council this came up so fast,” referring to getting the proposal in. (We) assumed a previous councillor was making sure the seniors' needs were being met and consulted.” He went on to add that if any renovations were to be done with the seniors, it might mean getting financial support from seniors. “I'm disappointed it will be empty,” said Coun. Heather Taylor of the decision not to move over to the new library. “But it is what it is and we'll carry on.”
Before council voted on the senior centre location, discussion derailed when Coun. Mark Kemball and audience member Gunner Hansen got into a heated debate. The two began debating the issues over the move, with Hansen reiterating why the seniors were against the new building and Kemball reiterating how council planned to fix the concerns. Coun. Heistad called them on the point of order and said the conversation was turning into a debate. Council then voted to keep the centre at its current location. Mayor Jim Romane said the town would set up meetings with the seniors to discuss future plans for the centre.
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