President’s Message – January 2017

Happy New Year!

A new year is an opportunity to share our plans and dreams for the upcoming twelve months. So at this time, I would like to share with you what 2017 may hold in store for our community.

The biggest dream is to finally realize the goal of improving our community facility by building an addition. As many of you know, shortly after we moved into our current building in 2002, an architect was hired to design a large addition. These plans have been tucked away for over a decade and subsequent community association boards have been saving money from revenues and casinos. Members have been discussing how the design could be improved and waiting for our neighbouring library and North Hill Centre mall owners to come through with their promises of renovations so that we could work with them to have an integrated design that would best serve our community.

After several extensions given to us by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission for future use of the proceeds we received from their casinos, we received a letter last October advising us that we would lose over $200,000 and possibly be removed from their list of charities if we did not submit a plan for the expenditure of their funds along with a time line. Suddenly, all our waiting for future collaboration with other interested parties was pressured into action.

Our response included a proposal to build a 3000 square foot addition that will be a multipurpose area. This new space will be versatile so that it can be partitioned when needed and suitable for a variety of uses such as meeting rooms, athletic studios, and banquets.  Casino funds and our sizable savings from general revenues over the years will fund the project. The time line for this project is estimated to be approximately 2 years.

As well, our board has contacted Councillor Druh Farrell and she has been sympathetic with our sudden call to action by facilitating a meeting with the city’s public library department and mall owner. We still hope that our project will fit into an integrated design even if it is done in stages rather than all at once. And we hope that you will contribute with your ideas and support so that we can create a design and renovation that will be worth the long wait! We will be asking for your input.

A much smaller project this year is to update our community association’s bylaws. They are outdated in some areas and inaccurate in others. Change requires a special general meeting with 21 days notice so please watch for further information and an invitation to attend this event.

I hope that you are looking forward to your own plans and dreams for 2017 and I wish you health and happiness.

Laura