By Khang Nguyen

Margo Fournier Centre users still looking for answers

Oct 6, 2015 | 6:25 AM

Seating inside the council chambers on Monday evening was at a premium as concerned residents flocked to learn more about the future of the Margo Fournier Centre.

In fact, seating overflowed to outside council chambers as over 60 Margo Fournier and Kinsmen Heritage Centre users attended the executive committee meeting in hopes of finding answers in regards to the “for sale” sign sitting outside of the building.

Even with the overwhelming support and a strong, unified message to not sell the building, the group left the meeting without much of an answer.

“(Council) hasn’t really decided what they wanted to do,” Bill Norman, Heritage Seniors Centre President, said. “I wish they would clarify that as soon as possible. A lot of people are quite concerned about it.”

In his presentation to the executive committee, Norman reported that 1,567 people used the Heritage Centre in September with the Seniors Club having over 250 members.

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In addition, over 650 signatures have been gathered in a petition to save the Margo Fournier Centre and Heritage Seniors Centre.

“I appreciate their support,” Norman said about those in attendance. “It’s for all of us and it’s for the seniors to come, not just the ones now.”

Facility user Terra Lennox-Zepp agrees with Norman, but adds it’s more than just the seniors who use the facilities.

“We saw seniors who use the Kinsmen Heritage Building and we saw active users of the Margo Fournier classes today, so people are obviously using the buildings and want to keep them.”

During her presentation, Lennox-Zepp expressed her disapproval of the city’s decision to put the Margo Fournier Centre up for sale, but more specifically, the lack of communication the users have had before and after the “for sale” sign went up.

“It just shows how little respect this administration has for the citizens of Prince Albert when buildings go up for sale and we learn about it from a sign on the lawn,” Lennox-Zepp said. “Disposing of the Margo Fournier Centre is disrespectful to those people who raised funds to create a city facility for us.

“If we’re building city infrastructure and expecting it to last only 49 years, which is the age of the Margo Fournier center, then why bother?”

At this point, the city’s community services department will take the presentations into consideration and work on providing council with more details on the condition of the building and other options such as the cost of splitting the Kinsmen Heritage Centre from the Margo Fournier Centre.

“I just think we’re spinning yarn here and I don’t know if we need to spin much more yarn,” Cody said, after pledging he would not vote in favour of selling the facility. “Why would we want to put the community service department through a bunch of studies, a whole bunch of machinations of things that they should do and bring it back only to hear that we’re not going to sell it or close it anyway?”

However, Counc. Rick Orr disagrees, saying the report will be well-required as details of the aging buildings upkeep would be beneficial to know.

“I think that those are some of the concerns that we’ve seen in reports that the public maybe hasn’t seen,” Orr said. “Somebody has to pay for that, and unless we’re willing to increase taxes, unless we can get a grant from federal of provincial government, I’m not sure how we go forward with an aging building.”

As the Margo Fournier Centre is located in Ward 2, Orr encouraged people to come out to the ward meeting on Thurs. Oct.22 at City Hall to continue the discussion.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @khangvnguyen