Discussions

So apparently a new building for Park community center is coming in at a cost of $1.5 to $1.8 million dollars and the city is short $300000 as it only allocated $1.3 million dollars for this project. When I look at the selling prices of new houses running around $400,000 to $500,000 and developers are no doubt making a profit at these prices these proposed costs are no doubt excessive and it is good to see that city council is not considering spending taxpayers dollars on this building. I realize there will be a cost to demolish the old building, but really a building that would suffice should be able to be built for a lot less.  
Apparently the group pushing for this center wants it as a gathering or meeting place for nearby residents. Really is this a community center as where the skating rink previously was there are now community gardens. Previously community centers were thought of as recreational centers for youth not simply meeting centers. There are plenty of existing community centers or otherwise that can be used as meeting places, weddings etc. in Brandon that are available.  
The other thing to consider is that volunteers are not available as they were in the past nobody apparently has time to dedicate to running a meeting place or recreational center as in the past. So then what, does the city have to employ somebody to run it?

I know from when we homeschooled, it was actually exceptionally challenging to find a meeting place that was 1. Secular (ie not in a church), 2. Affordable, and 3. Available. Park was actually one of our go-tos. There is a need for these things for some groups.

Park does not need a $1.800,000.00 rental building. All that would do is take away from the other community centres that have worked so hard to keep heir Centres in good repair and activities for the kids. Park has just gotten greedy.

I don't know if 1.8M is greedy for Park. I think it's what it costs to build. If you want to call people greedy, wouldn't it be the contractors?  
 
Have you tried renting a community centre? East End is pretty good and easy to rent. That's about it. In my experience, the others either make it very difficult, don't rent, or won't rent unless you're a specific kind of renter and/or having a specific kind of function. Or they flat out no longer exist and no one cared enough to save them.

The rest of the community centres have worked hard to keep the centres active. I can’t imagine what will happen to them if all this money is doled out to one centre. They don’t need a building that big or state of the art kitchen.. very frustrating for everyone else  
 
Edited by Shab, 2023-03-05 18:35:23

What is really missing from the conversation is the gaping hole that losing South End Community Centre has left within Brandon. The core of the City is served with churches, a library, museum, art gallery, splash parks, community garden...but the south is left with little in the way of community amenities as the City expands further south. I won't get into a debate as to whether the area surrounding the Park CC needs more community centers, but with the south expanding the way it is, there is no talk of serving the neighborhoods in the south with a new community center...and I have a feeling that will come to haunt council in the future...and it's all because Park has stolen their (council's) attention.

I totally agree that South End should have a Community Centre. That area has many families with children and it used to have Ice and activities. If Park gets its state of the art building, there won’t be anything left in the coffers for anything else.