St. Andrews (Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: City hands pink slip to another volunteer heritage group

Oct 5, 2019 | 6:53 AM

ANOTHER HERITAGE GROUP is being given its walking papers by City Hall. That makes three. Three strikes and you’re out, in effect.

The circumstances are all somewhat different, but the result is the same. It started with the museum. For 60 years it was operated by the volunteer Kamloops Museum Association until the City removed it from the picture in 2007.

More recently, the Kamloops Heritage Commission got the bum’s rush. The commission, made up of community members with a special interest in the preservation of heritage buildings, served the City for many years in an advisory capacity.

Earlier this year, the commission was relegated to the basement of the new City council committee structure. A few remaining commission members are now part of an “engagement group” that can offer occasional advice through the community services committee made up of councillors and staff.

Now the Kamloops Heritage Society — a different group from the commission — is being shown the door. The society has operated St. Andrews on the Square for the City since shortly after it was restored in 1996.

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The building has quite a history. Established as a Presbyterian church in 1887, it went through several changes until it became Calvary Temple in the late ‘40s when the Pentecostal Church bought it and installed Rev. Phil Gaglardi as pastor. Gaglardi’s flock grew so fast the church quickly became too small and he put up an ugly addition that remained until the City mercifully got rid of it and planted a garden in its place.

Keeping the church itself standing wasn’t easy. Back in the 1990s, one councillor famously referred to it as “an old pile of boards” and thought it should be torn down. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed.

St. Andrews on the Square now plays host to weddings, meetings, retirements, concerts and special events, and partners with a wide variety of charities and other community groups.

Because it has an on-site manager, anyone wanting to rent it can call direct to the building’s office and make quick arrangements.

This, compared to City Hall’s clunky booking system. The heritage society recently did a test booking through that system — it took two weeks.

If City Hall has its way, and, sadly, the deal is all but done, the society will be shunted aside in favour of City control.

The news came in an Aug. 21 letter from Mayor Ken Christian. It begins by talking about the significant cost of heritage buildings, then says, “Compounding the problem is the fact that facility rental income can be significantly impaired if maintenance and repairs fall behind, or if the Society is forced to restrict rentals in order to minimize its costs.”

After patting the society on the back for its work, Christian gets to the point. “Unfortunately, the current operational model is no longer sustainable — the financial burden of operating, maintaining, and repairing the facility is simply too great for a not-for-profit organization.”

Lowering the boom, the mayor gives notice the City will cancel the 1998 lease agreement with the society and take over operation effective March 1, 2020.

He offers a temporary service agreement with the society to provide “on-site liaison with event bookings” for up to 22 months. Those bookings would be done through the City’s booking system.

The mayor’s letter gives a deadline of Sept. 15 for the society to “bring to our attention” its current bookings.

Understandably, this was met with surprise and disappointment by the Heritage Society board, along with some questions.

First and foremost, how does the City possibly expect to operate St. Andrews on the Square for anything close to what the volunteer society does it for — under $60,000, including the manager’s salary? It can’t.

The City’s finance committee chair, Denis Walsh, acknowledges his committee should have asked staff for a detailed report on that before giving its blessing to the takeover.

But Barb Berger, the City’s culture manager, told me the cost for the City to run St. Andrew’s hasn’t been calculated. “I don’t have a number to give you,” she said.

The society got a second meeting with Walsh’s committee a couple of weeks ago that went about an hour, unlike the minutes-long presentation the society was allowed in May on the lease renewal. In addition to Walsh, Coun. Bill Sarai was there, along with Berger and others.

Heritage society chair Peggy Broad is critical of the City’s handling of the file. “The lines of communication have not been open,” she says.

Both she and building manager Mel Formanski dismiss any concerns about repairs and maintenance. They say roof ridge caps — not the entire roof — need replacing, and the building needs painting, a job the City was supposed to do several years ago but has dragged its feet on.

At the request of the City, the society created new strategic and revenue plans, which have been met.

Berger doesn’t disagree that community involvement is being lost and says, “Hopefully, we can work together on this.”

A meeting is scheduled for the end of next week between Berger, Formanski and Broad at which Broad expects Berger to present a new work plan. She says if the City persists in the takeover, “I think we’ll probably pull the plug” rather than carry on temporarily to teach the City how to run the building.

In my view, mayor and council should consider the heavy investment the society has made in the building (close to $290,000), and in furnishing it with, for example, the church pews, piano, chairs and office equipment — some of it borrowed and some owned by the society.

The lease with the society has been unique in that it puts a burden on the society for much of the repairs and maintenance on the building. If the current model is no longer sustainable (as the mayor claims) the fault is with the City, not the society.

Efforts to get the society’s side of the story to council haven’t had much luck. Lindsay Tithecott, a volunteer at St. Andrew’s, wrote in an emailed letter to mayor and council that she “cannot fathom how this makes sense for the City. Running this site (and the booking platform) will cost the City money, require extra resources and reduce the quality of the user’s experience.”

Responding to council’s mistaken impression that St. Andrew’s no longer hosts weddings, she invited mayor and council to her own wedding there today, Oct. 5.

Coun. Arjun Singh responded that “my support for the decision was generally based on concerns about building utilization and long term governance stability.”

And therein lies the communication problem. The non-profit heritage society is running a revenue surplus on building rentals. And while Formanski — who does everything from bookings to sweeping floors — knows it’s “inevitable” that she won’t be there forever, Broad says the society would hire a successor when Formanski retires.

So how about the City does this: consult, yes consult, and work with the society to revamp the lease agreement with the City taking over full responsibility for site maintenance and repair costs while leaving the society to run the place, which it happens to do remarkably well.

Any time a community group can spare government the cost and headache of running something, it’s a good thing. But no, the City prefers the heavy-handed approach.

All this has the appearance to me of a City council once again falling in line with what staff is telling it to do.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.