PHOTO/IMAGE COURTESY:Laurie Tritschler

Stephenson Engineering recommends building a new parking lot where the children’s playground now stands, plus more offices and an expansion to council chambers.

Town council considers renos and rebuilding

By Laurie Tritschler

Shootin’ the Breeze Shootin’ the Breeze Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

January 15, 2023

Pincher Creek council will consider plans to renovate the town office and rebuild its aging works yard through the year ahead.

Both plans were addressed at council’s Jan. 4 committee of the whole meeting, where council voted to accept assessment reports and construction estimates submitted by the Calgary consulting firm, Stephenson Engineering.

Council has neither awarded construction contracts, nor set aside money for either project in this year’s budget.

Stephenson’s reports to council highlight a lack of suitable office space at both sites, recommending an estimated $3.2-million overhaul to the town office at 962 St. John Ave., and a roughly $8.5-million build for a new works yard near the current yard at 1068 Kettles St.

The town office was converted from an elementary school in the 1990s and, while council chambers and some civic offices were built in the facilities’ east wing, the west wing’s classrooms, gymnasium and washrooms designed for children remain largely unchanged.

Stephenson recommends building a new parking lot where the children’s playground now stands, plus more offices and an expansion to council chambers. The firm meanwhile recommends holding on to the gym in the west wing.

Speaking at the committee of the whole meeting, Alexa Levair, who replaced Al Roth as director of operations last November, told council that Roth had kept his office in a defunct classroom for lack of office space.

The town would rebuild the playground, Levair told council.

The town’s works yard is too old and too congested to be refurbished, Stephenson concluded. The report details an acute lack of office space, plus a number of accessibility barriers. At one point, the report highlights that “Only one change room is provided (at the works yard), so it is not suitable for any female staff.”

Council has not resolved construction timelines for either project. Stephenson’s report recommends running the existing operations yard while replacement facilities are built at a town-owned site bounded by Table Mountain and McEachern streets to the north and south, and Mountain View Avenue and Allison Street to the west and east.

Stephenson factored in a 20 per cent contingency in its cost estimations for both projects.