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Update on Town Hall/ Opera House project presented

The Battleford Town Hall renewal project was back before town council at their meeting Tuesday night, Oct. 22. A presentation was made by Laura Plosz of Group2 Architecture, who was awarded the project in September.
Laura Plosz of Group2 Architecture presents to town council on the Town Hall/Opera House project.
Laura Plosz of Group2 Architecture presents to town council on the Town Hall/Opera House project.

The Battleford Town Hall renewal project was back before town council at their meeting Tuesday night, Oct. 22.

A presentation was made by Laura Plosz of Group2 Architecture, who was awarded the project in September. The project involves the renewal of the upper floor where the Opera House was located.

Group2 provided an update on where the project stood as of now. Plosz emphasized that community engagement was important to what they were doing, pointing to some of the consultations that had happened. A member of their team had been at the Operun, which allowed them to connect with different people there and receive feedback. 

“It really is about community building, this is what it’s intended to be,” Plosz said. 

Their first stakeholder meeting had taken place a couple of weeks ago with 25 people attending, which lasted three hours. The intention was to get some ideas about what could be done with the Opera House space on the upper level, with a view to creating some sort of public space there.

But exactly what kind of space it is to be is still to be determined.

“We wanted them to think what else is possible,” said Plosz.

As part of their mandate for the project, she explained Group2 were tasked with exploring two options for the space: one being an opera hall, but also a “second other possibility.”

Much of the discussion at the stakeholder session focused on getting ideas and input about what the space could be. Some images were shown of similar spaces around the world and what those communities had done. The stakeholders group was also asked about what the guiding principles should be to provide a basis for moving the town hall project forward in the future.

Some common themes came through, including a desire to preserve history, create a place for gathering, a place for business, a place that recognizes reconciliation and a shared history, a place focused on economic development and that showcaseds community pride.  

Councillor Susan McLean Tady was included on the stakeholder group; she said it was a “positive experience” and that it was “very interesting to get everyone’s intakes and feelings on what should be done.”

The initial stakeholders were gathered from a number of groups, but the initial list had, according to chief administrative officer John Enns-Wind, “skewed on the mature side.”

They ended up sending out more invitations to a variety of schools and daycare centres, including inviting a number of Battleford students from the high schools, to get a representative cross-section for the group. All those involved in the stakeholder group had to be Battleford residents.

Plosz outlined the timeline of next steps for the project. The plan for Group2 is to formulate a draft of the guiding principles, and also take the ideas gathered and develop common themes from those, and then bring it back to the stakeholders in a second session later this fall.

A public engagement session open to the broader public is planned for Nov. 6 and that will be a come-and-go event.

The second stakeholder session will happen after that, with Group2 seeking for more feedback and refine the options further. Another public session is planned for early December, and then a third stakeholder session will happen in January.

Following that a business plan will be ready to present to council later in January with a recommendation, and after that a report will be prepared “as an item that can be used for strategic and budget planning,” Plosz said.