BARRHEAD - Barrhead municipalities are one step closer to learning whether the old Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC) building would be a good fit for a potential community building as the town and county.
County of Barrhead manager Debbie Oyarzun told councillors during their April 4 meeting that the municipality received a $147,570 Alberta Community Partnership (ACP) grant that will assist in finding a use for the ADLC.
The municipalities jointly applied for the grant under the intermunicipal collaboration stream.
"The purpose was to fund a feasibility study to see if it was financially viable to repurpose the Alberta Distance Learning Centre as a joint civic centre project," she said.
Later in the meeting, councillors authorized administration to enter into an agreement with the province so the county could accept the funds.
The next step, Oyarzun said, would be to hire a consultant to review all the documentation on the building before conducting a full facility "multi-discipline condition assessment," noting the study would take time to complete.
"It is an over 76,000-square-foot facility," she said. "We would want them to look at all the systems from HVAC to plumbing, along with the roof and then compiling all the data with photo documentation and come up with a cost-analysis of all the future operating costs, including potential capital costs needed in the lifecycle of the building."
Oyarzun said the study would also include a joint-municipal services inventory to determine if the municipalities could share any spaces, such as those for storage or meeting and employee break rooms.
Also included in the study would be a building capacity analysis to determine how much space each municipality would need for their municipal offices and what space would be available for other community opportunities.
After all that is done, Oyarzun said, she would expect the consultant to come up with design concepts and potential floor plans so the municipalities can "come up with a Class D estimate for any renovations needed."
Deputy reeve Marvin Schatz was concerned whether the study could be completed with the funds available, noting the municipalities would not have a firm grasp of the cost of creating the document until they put it up for tender.
Oyarzun said that although that is true, she approached several consultants and they were able to give her some "rough estimates," so she is confident this study can be accomplished for what they received via the ACP grant.
Since the ADLC ceased operation in June 2021, the provincially-owned building, which opened in 1984, has sat mostly vacant, with only the Ministry of Education print shop still operating in the basement.
The county first discussed the possibility of potentially using the building as a joint municipal building during a budget priority meeting in early October.
After the meeting, Oyarzun said the town and county discussed the possibility of applying for the grant at an Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) meeting between the two municipalities on Nov. 14.
ICF agreements are established between neighbouring municipalities on a variety of issues that impact both communities, such as recreation, shared water and sewer to joint land planning. These agreements were made mandatory under the province’s revised Municipal Government Act (MGA).
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
