The Town of Grimshaw is moving.
Tomorrow is the grand opening of Grimshaw’s new town hall, which is the old Kennedy Elementary School building.
Chief Administrative Officer, Brian Allen, says the former town hall was built in the 1960’s, so there were accessibility issues.
“Because of the way the old town hall was configured, you had to climb a set of stairs to come up to the administration office to pay bills and whatnot,” says Allen. “You had to go downstairs to get to the council chambers so for those with mobility issues, the building certainly wasn’t user-friendly.”
Allen adds that since it is an elementary school, everything is on the same floor.
“It’s (the new building) accommodating for seniors, or anyone who needs to come down and interact with staff, or attend a council meeting.”
The budget for the renovation of the building was $1 million but Allen says he expects the final bill to be below that figure.
“All the final accounting is yet to be completed, and we will know shortly, but we are under budget,” states Allen.
Allen also mentions that council’s goal was for the new building to be a community centre, instead of just an administration building.
“We have already leased space to community groups,” mentions Allen.
“That includes the Playschool; the Lac Cardinal Performing Arts group has space in our building. We have leased space to the Peace River School Division. In fact, there is a classroom that is being used daily by the art program of Grimshaw Public School. There are other groups we are negotiating leases with as well.”
There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday at the new town hall from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The building is located at 4612 50th Street. Staff moved into the building around Christmas time.
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
