(Image credit: Mel Rothenburger).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Will anyone speak up for heritage in the Tournament Capital?

Jun 25, 2022 | 6:48 AM

HERITAGE IN KAMLOOPS is in dire straits.

There is currently no effective voice for the preservation of heritage in the city. The degradation of advocacy for heritage began with the abandonment of the heritage commission by the current mayor and council, and became virtually complete when they took control of St. Andrew’s on the Square from the Kamloops Heritage Society.

All that’s left is a heritage “engagement group” that reports to one of council’s committees, and nobody ever hears from it.

There was a brief hope that the heritage society would be able to transform itself into an umbrella group for heritage interests but since exiting St. Andrew’s it has floundered and may fold entirely unless somebody rides to the rescue.

But without St. Andrew’s, it’s as though the society is having an identity crisis, unable to find a purpose for itself.

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You’ll recall, perhaps, the City’s assumption of management from the society six months ago. It came after tense relations between the society and the City beginning in 2019 when council decided, in a closed-door meeting, it could do a better job of managing the beloved facility than the society could. I broke the news in a column in October that year. There followed much back-and-forthing in which council first steadfastly refused to reconsider, claiming the takeover was part of a five-year plan, except nobody could come up with any record of such a plan.

There was no logical reason for the move. Mayor Ken Christian said “the current operational model is no longer sustainable.” Coun. Arjun Singh insisted the termination of the relationship with the society was based on concerns about “building utilization and long-term governance stability.” Coun. Dieter Dudy said “the reconsideration ship has sailed.”

It all became quite acrimonious until City CAO David Trawin stepped in and mediated an extension for the society until the end of 2021.

But then, to everyone’s surprise, last fall the society’s board declined another extension that would have carried through to the end of 2023. The reason: a major decline in revenue thanks to COVID. So, the City got what it had originally asked for, and was left with no choice but to assume management. At the beginning of this year, the City froze bookings at the church, though it promised to honour those that had already been made.

Kamloops Museum supervisor Julia Cyr, who has been tasked with getting St. Andrew’s back in business, tells me she’s hoping everything will be up and running “in the coming weeks.”

She said details such as a new booking system, setting of rental rates and maintenance issues such as repainting and roof repairs are still underway.

“It’s actually been pretty complicated,” she said. “There’s a lot that has had to be done.”

But she said the church has been well-maintained and is in “great shape.”

Things will be different under City management than it was under the society, a key change being there will be no on-site manager. That’s what Melody Formanski did when the society ran the building — she took care of bookings, made sure everything was in order for customers and, at times, acted as janitor, prop person and handy woman.

Nobody knows the building better than Formanski. She was largely responsible for saving St. Andrew’s from the wrecking ball in the mid-‘90s, helped form the heritage society, became a leading force in restoring the building, then became the manager. She’s retired now but she worries about St. Andrew’s and the society. Over a coffee downtown this week, she told me that post-St. Andrew’s, an option for the society was to become a new voice for heritage, maybe hooking up with the heritage railway society, heritage-tree advocates, the family history society and other groups in an umbrella approach.

But, maybe due to pandemic exhaustion, energy has drained from the society. The board hasn’t been able to attract new directors to re-energize, though an annual general meeting is coming up in a few weeks that might be able to set a new direction.

And, this is just me, but maybe after this year’s civic election the current committee structure of City council will be turfed in favour of something that makes sense. If that happens, something akin to the old heritage commission might be re-constituted, or the relationship between the City and the heritage society might be given new life. Or maybe an entirely new group will emerge. If it all fails, Kamloops will be left with no defender of heritage. And heritage buildings will continue to fall.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, 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 Pattison Media.