The Cold Lake Seniors' Society's current home in Cold Lake north is in need of more than a few repairs.
“One of the top priorities is the parking lot, which is breaking up most of the sidewalks, and next to the building where there’s water seeping in, we’re worried about the integrity of the building,” society board member Ray Coates explained to the City of Cold Lake council at their meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
The group has created an ad-hoc committee in hopes of forming a long-term plan for their building.
"What we’re looking at is the facility in particular and the long-range plan, because that building is 40-years-old and that boiler has been there for 40 years,” continued Coates.
The building is owned by the seniors' society after they purchased it from the city for what Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland described as "an exceptional price."
Part of their reasoning for offering it to the society at such a bargain was because of the issues the municipality knew the facility would one day face.
“I think the building has been fantastic and you have managed it so well,” stated Copeland.
In a letter to the city, the seniors' society explains that although they've invested time and money into updating the building, there's "still so much more to be done."
Their most recent expense, which was budgeted to cost $25,000, was the east-end entrance.
“It’s just about finished now, and it’s not a maintenance cost per say, it’s more of a capital expense because it was leaking and when there was snow there was ice and it was dangerous for people coming into the building, but I don’t see it as a maintenance so much as a capital expense,” Jeanette Laforce, treasurer for the society noted.
That project should wrap up by the end of November, she added.
Any funding needed for emergency repairs and their programming has been set-aside up until this point, however, the society is currently seeking grant funding and other financial assistance for more expensive projects such as the parking lot, sidewalk replacement, alarm system upgrades, and the installation of a chair lift.
The society has received quotes from contractors for some of the work, but have yet to bring in an engineer.
Coates said, “What we lack and what we’re working on right now is a long-range plan to say ‘okay, what are the things we need to do most urgently,’ and budget for them, because we never set aside money for a capital project, it’s all been one business, we want to make it more like a business. We want to have a capital and operation budget, so we’re working on that.”
In addition to their plans to apply for $50,000 in city grants, the group intends to meet with the MD of Bonnyville to discuss any dollars they could provide.
“We’re very anxious about that, because that parking lot stuff, we can’t do it now, but if we could get at it next summer and at least get going on it,” exclaimed Coates.
He noted, although the society has Cold Lake in the name, it's not only city residents signing-up.
“We’re very much a community organization in the larger sense."
Our of their current 326 members, 50 reside within the MD of Bonnyville or surrounding area.
