A public meeting about the relocation of Athabasca’s secondary school and the pool, library and archives to the Athabasca Regional Multiplex site was held last Thursday, and approximately 200 residents attended to voice their opinions on the move or to learn more about the projects.
The meeting was hosted by a group of seven concerned citizens from the community.
The library board and Aspen View Public Schools were the only two stakeholders in the projects under discussion that attended. Although members of Athabasca County council and Town of Athabasca council attended, they were there as public citizens, not to represent their councils. Athabasca University was not represented.
Many citizens questioned the school division’s reasoning behind the move to the multiplex. Some said other areas of town would have been a better choice.
Meeting organizer Shirley Stashko spoke at the beginning of the meeting and stated the concerns are “location, costs, the future of the brick school and the effect of combining a school with a public library.”
Stashko said the move has commenced without public input.
“People feel that public input should be provided before planning any further,” she said. “This is not a gripe session. The mission of our committee is to enter this discussion in a spirit of cooperation and respect.”
Stashko stated the meeting was designed to allow citizens a chance to voice their opinions.
“This meeting is not designed to be confrontational,” she said. “It is not an ambush.”
Bob Tannas and Celeste Williams attended the meeting on behalf of the library board, while retiring Aspen View superintendent Brian LeMessurier and soon-to-be superintendent Mark Francis attended on behalf of the school board.
“We worked really hard to get this school.” LeMessurier said. “When it is built, it will be unlike any school you have ever seen.”
LeMessurier stated the school division has used social media, its website, press releases, the newspaper, the radio and open board meetings to help communicate the progress of the new school to the community.
Some citizens asked why the school couldn’t be built at EPC’s current location.
“We don’t have enough land around the school currently to run the programs,” LeMessurier said. “We use the land across the street.”
LeMessurier stated the land across from the school is currently owned by the town and may be developed in the future, leaving less than the Alberta Education requirement of 20 acres to build a new school.
Town council passed a motion in May to offer Aspen View up to 12 acres of land near EPC free of charge in the event the new school cannot be built at the multiplex. However, LeMessurier said that offer was not on the table when the school board initially chose the multiplex site.
“That offer had not been made throughout the planning stages for the school,” LeMessurier said. “So, that option was never considered.
“We moved forward believing that we needed to look at an alternative site,” he said.
Bob Tannas spoke regarding the library.
“To accommodate future population growth, we thought the library should be at least 10,000 square feet,” Tannas said.
He explained the town would save millions of dollars by having the library combined with the new school.
“The library board recommended to town council that the town sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to allow the library to move,” Tannas told the crowd. “The second motion was that the library board would maintain jurisdiction.”
Tannas also said additional funding would be required if the library were to be open more days per week and for longer hours.
An audience member asked about the lack of public transportation in Athabasca and how that would negatively impact the community if the school and library were relocated.
LeMessurier stated Aspen View director of business services Rodney Boyko worked on the Bold Centre in Lac La Biche, and that municipality used a voucher system to find out how it could structure a public transit system.
The vouchers were given out and documented the age of the person using the system. The user would give a voucher to a taxi driver, and the driver would later be paid by the municipality.
LeMessurier said this would be an effective way to see what kind of transportation needs the community has.
Another concern was for students who walk to the downtown core for after-school jobs.
LeMessurier stated that when EPC was built, it was on a hill with nothing around it, and it was not deemed to be downtown.
“We started building programs to keep (students) at the school,” LeMessurier said. “I would suggest that we need to look at these types of challenges to build what we need.”
Lifelong resident of Athabasca Roy Fodchuk voiced his concerns and received several rounds of applause from the audience.
“I just don’t understand why we are going up to where the multiplex is,” Fodchuk stated. “Why are we moving core facilities out west where access is limited? We have lost our common sense. The library should be where it is. The school should be built on the south hill, and the pool should be in a location where kids can walk to the pool.”
LeMessurier said when EPC was built, there was resistance, but a community built around it.
“We built a school on the east side of town, and very quickly a community built around it,” he said. “I would challenge that (the town) needs to grow in any set direction.”
Library staff member and community member Sharon Harding voiced her concern about the politics behind the decisions.
“I expect to be consulted. I don’t think that is an unreasonable expectation,” she said.
Business owner Annie Karczmarczyk said she was excited to learn the community would soon have a new secondary school.
“If you build it, they will come,” she stated.
She pointed out that even though the public meeting was held downtown, everyone present appeared to have driven, not walked, to be there.
Community member Mike Gismondi said that when the new school is built, it should be an energy efficient building.
“I think we need to have a 50- to 80-year horizon,” he stated.
Gismondi said the construction of the multiplex was a disaster as it was not built to be a green building with lots of natural light.
“I think we blew it,” he said. “I think you need to recover that.”
Several residents thought that with the construction of a new swimming pool, tourism would expand because swim meets could be held. Currently, the pool is aging and is not large enough to host swim meets.
A petition was available for people to sign calling for a vote by residents on whether or not the town should borrow $5 million for a new pool.
