On Wednesday, November 2nd, the Village of Radium Hot Springs held its first public meeting to showcase the potential options for the construction of the new community hall.
Approximately 50-60 residents were in attendance to see two different proposals that the architects had designed for the future hall. In the end, mayor of Radium Hot Springs Clara Reinhardt said that most people sided with option A1, which features a flat roof with more visible access to the outdoors in comparison with option C2.
“The general consensus seemed to be for option A which had a larger atrium with high windows,” she said. “This would create some bright informal meeting space as well as a room to display art, trade booths etc.”
At Council on Wednesday, November 9th, one resident was in attendance to discuss the two options, questioning why or if the village had considered going with an option that had more than one floor.
““There was a two-story option but it was voted off the island pretty quick for a number of reasons,” she said. “One was cost.”
“That was the other issue with the two-story option we looked at was that two-story option would have required an elevator and that’s a huge cost that would increase the operational cost of it,” director of planning and development services for the village Arne Dohlen said.
In regards to the floor plan within the building, both options have maintained relative similarity. Rooms such as the multi-purpose room, main hall, kitchen and space for the library are integral parts of the future of the Radium community hall. This would require moving the library from its existing location in Radium Plaza, which would save the village a substantial amount of money on rent, said councillor Ron Verboom.
The current projected cost of the hall is set to be $5.129 million, according to chief administrative officer Mark Read. Reinhardt said that they did receive support from the public to do what is necessary to construct a sustainable long-term hall.
“I heard that people believe we should not totally be driven by keeping costs down as we will have this building for 40 years and don’t want to outgrow it before the end of its lifespan,” she said.
There will be another public meeting for residents to express their sentiment on the options, which are available for viewing on the Village of Radium Hot Springs website.
“It’s good to ask questions and that’s where the architect or staff can answer,” Reinhardt said. “By the end of that meeting, we’re going to have the final floor format I think and then we can start going to the details inside, like what kind of flooring, exteriors or kitchen we want.”
A date is still to be determined for the next community hall public consultation.