It's time to put on our thinking caps.
As Sundre residents are by now no doubt well aware, the Foothills Lodge that formerly housed about 40 seniors sits vacant and completely unused.
The facility's residents were recently relocated to the new Mountain View Seniors' Housing campus of care in the southwest part of town, opening the door for the community to come up with future plans so the building's potential isn't squandered.
There are a number of possible avenues to pursue, including student residency, affordable housing, temporary accommodation for refugees, and perhaps even reopening the facility as a seniors' lodge.
Regardless of what plan is agreed upon, the structure will require a certain level of renovations and repurposing. In other words, it will be some time before the former Foothills Lodge has new life breathed into it.
So the sooner the community comes up with a course of action, the better.
Although a specific date, time and location are yet to be determined, provincial officials are planning to hold a community consultation sometime this fall to work with local leaders, health-care professionals and residents towards finding a consensus on what should be done with the building.
“Going into this type of process, we don't go in with preconceived plans,” Micky Elabdi, acting director of communications for Alberta Seniors and Housing, told the Round Up.
“It's part of what we determine with the community.”
That should come as good news to anyone who might have been concerned ivory tower bureaucrats would come along with a preplanned decision that did not take into consideration the community's desires or concerns.
“Our department will be working with the municipality on consultations on the future use of the lodge,” said Elabdi.
The fact that this consultation process should have been underway long ago — such as for example the moment provincial officials knew the closure of the lodge was in the cards — is beside the point.
What matters now is that this public engagement will be taking place.
That means we have to be ready.
Nothing could be worse for the future of the Foothills Lodge than for the community to be unprepared when the public engagement takes place.
Provincial officials need to see how serious and committed people in the region are about the facility, or they will not easily be persuaded to support whatever plan is in the end proposed.
There might still be many weeks before the consultation, but time slips by quickly — especially during the summer. So let's get brainstorming some ideas to show officials beyond doubt that we can find a suitable use for the former Foothills Lodge that will benefit the whole community.
