After months of discussions and research Bonnyville Town Council has decided to build its new Town Hall on the site of the existing building, which sits on the corner of 50th Street and 49th Ave.
A total of six different locations throughout Bonnyville were scouted by Town administration and contracted architects before deciding that the current location was the optimal site.
Once the location of the new building was chosen, Manasc Issac Architects Ltd. out of Edmonton drew up designs for five possible buildings and presented them to council.
After a lengthy discussion local Councilors threw out two of the options and asked the architects to provide further details, including 3-D renderings of the remaining three designs.
The first option is a thin three-storey building running east to west at the north side of the property. It would include a roof top patio and an open street-level plaza with trees and benches facing the corner of 50th St. and 49th Ave. This building is estimated to cost approximately $10.1 million.
Option two is similar to the first design, but is only two-storey's tall and comes in at roughly $8.4 million.
The third option is a simple one-storey building, which would run along the east side of the property where the current parking lot is situated. A new parking lot and open plaza would take the place of the current building. This option was estimated at a cost of $7.3 million.
“I am seeing some numbers (cost) that were likely a little higher than what we were expecting,” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski, who was concerned with how the Town might go about funding the project.
“We don't have a well in the back that we can pump $1,000 bills out of,” said Town CAO Mark Power. “We would have to go to the tax payers.”
According to Assistant CAO Bill Rogers the Town would be able to fund a $4.5 million building with no tax increase to the local residents, but anything higher than that would need to see them “get a little creative.”
While the cost of a new building is going to be between $7 million and $10 million, local councilors still believe the cost is worth it, as the current building just doesn't fit the communities expanding needs.
The current town hall building has served Town administration, was once the local library and even served as a fire hall for a short period of time.
An option was presented to renovate the current building, which would include an expansion east towards the current parking lot, but coucillors weren't in favour of the idea.
“I think we would be crazy to renovate this place,” said Coun. John Irwin. “It is a mess of additions. I wouldn't be excited about putting any more dollars into this place.”
Even the cost of renovating and expanding the current building came in higher than expected with Manasc Issac Architects Ltd. estimating a $6.5 million cost.
“There are more unknowns when you are renovating an existing building,” said Vivian Mansc, who presented the options to Council at their Sept. 8 meeting.
“I wouldn't renovate this building if you don't have to. It is not of a quality that is worth reimagining. It has seen better days.”
A sixth option, which was also presented, involved moving the Town offices into the Centennial Centre and taking over the space that was once used by Portage College.
This move would see less building construction costs, but it would see the Town have to pay rent, a bill of $85,000 per year for the duration of their stay. The total costs of the renovations, including 25 years of rent, would come in at roughly $5.4 million.
No Town Councilors were in favour of moving to the C2, feeling that the Town Hall needs to have its own identity and be a landmark in the community.
The top three options selected by the councilors are going to be developed further by Manasc. She will be presenting the updated designs to Council on Sept. 22 when they meet for lunch at the AUMA (Alberta Urban Municipalities Association) convention in Calgary.
Council could make a decision on a design as early as their next council meeting on Sept. 29.
While nothing is set in stone, Council would like to move into their new building by July 1, 2017.
