OLDS — A proposal to house three community groups in the former Olds Fire Department hall has changed.
Now, only two of those groups — the Mountain View Food Bank and the Community Lending Shelf — are looking at going in there.
The building is located at 4829 50th St. It became superfluous when the fire department moved to a new hall on 65th Street in 2013.
Late this past summer, the Mountain View Hospice Society, which had been looking at relocating to the former fire hall from the Olds United Church, opted to move instead into the former Gadgets Computers building in Uptowne.
Brent Williams, the town’s chief administrative officer, confirmed the change in the number of tenants.
“Plans are still progressing,” he wrote in an email. “The tenants as of now will be the Mountain View Food Bank and the Community Lending Shelf. There are no current plans to have other groups join.”
Mountain View Food Bank president Tayva Graham says that organization is hoping to move into the building from its current space at 5025 50th St. this spring.
She says they are looking for a new space because the Town has indicated it wants to turn the building they’re currently located in into housing.
The Community Lending Shelf is also utilizing space in the Olds United Church, but director Lucinda Watkins is unsure how long it will be available. There's talk the church might be sold.
"So we're kind of on borrowed time as far as being there," she said during an interview.
Watkins said for now, the Community Lending Shelf is staying at its current location in the Olds United Church. She said the space in the church that the hospice society moved out of won't work for her organization as it's more of an area for administration.
She says their lease in the former fire hall is dependent on the food bank signing its lease and “that has been delayed.”
“So big announcements, then nothing,” Watkins wrote in an email. “We were told we could move last spring, then August 15, then nothing.”
“No one is giving me any answers. The mayor and council are not even returning my emails. I only know rumours,” she wrote at the time the Albertan interviewed her.
The Albertan first reported on the proposal to enable the community organizations to lease space in the former fire hall in November, 2023.
A report on the matter was provided during a town council meeting in the spring.
The municipality had been unable to sell the property for the last three years.
The former fire hall was built in 1979 on contaminated soil. It sits on the site of a former fuel station.
A Phase II environmental site assessment confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons in the soil and a 2019 cost estimate for remediation was approximately $600,000.
Administrative staff noted that the East Olds Area Redevelopment Plan has essentially rezoned the property from its original, and most feasible, use of light industrial to commercial, making it unavailable for those businesses that would require six automotive bays, such as mechanic and autobody shops.
The existing building is two storeys. It contains a mix of offices, double height truck bays, kitchen and multi-purpose areas.
Town administrative staff estimated that by leasing out the building, the Town could realize about $15,000 in annual savings through utilities, insurance and the financial cost of facilities and public works staff time.
Last spring, Williams said it was hoped at least one of the organizations would be in the former fire hall by the end of September.
During an interview with the Albertan, Mountain View Food Bank president Tayva Graham said her understanding is that construction issues, including the need to get the facility up to the current building code, have led to the delay.
“There's some stuff, the structural issues, still sort of being sorted out, which is slowing things down and we're just coming to negotiations with the Town on expenses for that,” she said.
Graham said the food bank hopes to obtain grant money to help cover its share of those costs.
By email, the Albertan asked Williams about the delay in moving groups into the old fire hall and whether costs such as upgrading it to code are an issue, but did not receive a response by press time.
Watkins said the construction/renovation costs are a problem for her organization.
“I have been upfront all along and told the Town (of Olds) we do not have budget for anything beyond basic maintenance,” she wrote.
Graham said although there are delays, the food bank is grateful for the opportunity to move into the facility, as it will be a bigger, better space for volunteers and clients.
“The Town (of Olds) very generously offering us the use of the old fire hall definitely comes at a time the extra space is greatly needed,” Graham wrote in an email.
During a previous interview, Graham estimated that space in their current location, including a basement where they store pallets of food stuffs, totals just under 6,000 square feet. She said storing those items in the basement is rather inconvenient.
Graham also said there’s no space for a waiting room for clients and parking is limited, because the parking in the area is shared not only with food bank clients but also provincial employees and their clients as well as surrounding businesses.
“I know they're giving us a huge gift, we really respect that,” she said.
