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Arts and Culture Centre in segments

Smithers council settles on presenting public with concept of building new library/gallery first.
8619342_web1_Arts--Culture_Final_Presentation-OPTION-3B
Part of Bulkley Valley Arts & Culture Centre option 3 from the pre-feasability study.

Read the full story in the Sept. 27 edition of The Interior News.

It is not a final decision, but the public will be presented with the idea of building a series of buildings rather than one large arts and culture centre in Smithers.

The meeting is scheduled for the evening of Oct. 19 at the Prestige Hudson Bay Lodge. The exact time and format has yet to be determined.

Town council passed a motion to present the public with a plan most similar to option three from a pre-feasibility study presented in June, but instead built in phases. It has the Town building a shared building for the Smithers Public Library and Smithers Art Gallery at the library’s current location at the end of Main Street.

That means the Bulkley Valley Museum, Smithers District Chamber of Commerce’s visitor centre, CICK FM, and Smithers Farmers’ Market would be left out of any development for the time being. The idea is to phase in more construction at Central Park over at least several years.

Both the Chamber and Museum have stressed their need for new space. The museum would try to build a new storage building on its own through grants to protect present and future inventory. Current storage is highly inadequate, with some artifacts exposed to the elements or in deteriorated storage sheds.

Coun. Phil Brienesse, who proposed the motion at a committee of the whole on Tuesday, stressed this was not council’s final decision and was for the purpose of public feedback. Mayor Taylor Bachrach suggested it was a step towards narrowing the scope of the project, with more steps to be taken until shovels are in the ground.

“At this point it represents council’s response to the pre-feasibility study. And what we heard from the community is that they want to be part of weighing in as well; and if we were to make a firm decision on the direction we were heading prior to going to a public consultation process, then I don’t think we’d be engaging in that process in good faith,” said Bachrach.

He said after the town hall meeting, council would then be in a position to move on to the next step by deciding on a design concept and start working towards a business plan. The next planning step is estimated to cost $100,000.

The budget in the five-year capital plan was set at $10 million for the project, originally intended to be one building at Central Park. Using an estimate of $400 per square foot from the Public Design consultants who wrote the pre-feasibility study, the estimated cost of building a space for all user groups without any reductions from the three options presented was set at $16.8 million.

editor@interior-news.com