The Canmore Miners’ Union Hall is one step closer to seeing council approve $100,000 for a major restoration project for the facility.
Canmore council voted earlier this month to direct administration to include the dollar amount in the 2012 capital budget.
The move means final approval for the project, proposed by Pine Tree Players and the Canmore Miner’s Union Hall Management Committee, will happen with final approval of the budget expected in December.
It is a good thing too, as council had apprehensions over where the money would go, who would be responsible for the project and whether the Canmore Museum could issue tax receipts for donations.
“This does not approve the project, it includes it in the budget,” said Mayor Ron Casey. “When administration comes forward with a project sheet it will be clear how this is to be managed.”
The committee manages the Union Hall on behalf of Pine Tree Players, which holds the lease and would oversee restoration.
The total project is estimated at $350,000, with $100,000 of that coming from an anonymous donation. With the yet to be approved Town portion, that leaves $150,000 for the committee that proposed the project to secure.
“The remainder will be secured through federal and provincial grants, the Bow Valley Foundation and a fundraising campaign,” said manager of facilities Chris Hay. “The Union Hall committee is confident they can raise that money.”
Hay said the project is considered by administration to be esthetic in nature and not necessary from a repair and maintenance point of view.
“Considering the current condition of the facility, moving forward with the capital project would be done primarily based on esthetics and historical value,” he said.
The anonymous donation would be split between $75,000 on the capital side and $25,000 for operations and upkeep over the next 25 years.
There were some questions raised about whether or not the amount set aside for upkeep would be adequate and how it would be managed.
Councillor Jim Ridley made a motion to have the municipality’s funds contingent upon the project considering low maintenance siding rather than wood as proposed.
“I do not see how $25,000 in a trust fund will hold for 25 years,” Ridley said. “They can find material that looks like wood.”
However, as set out by the anonymous donor’s legal counsel Peter Perrin, the donated funds are contingent upon the Union Hall being refinished with wood to bring it back to its original state when it was built 100 years ago.
“This is about bringing the facility back to its original historic façade,” said Coun. Hans Helder.
The Union Hall committee also requested council make a motion to approve the property to have the Miners’ Statue relocated from its current site at the Canmore Hotel.
With the hotel for sale there are concerns from a legal perspective its sale may bring ownership of the statue into question and hence the motivation to move it.
Administration did not put the motion in front of council as the site has been deemed appropriate for public art already.
Hay added relocation would be subject to approval by the Canmore Museum, which owns it and the original project to create the tribute to Canmore’s mining past was not a Town of Canmore one.
