‘It’s not just a building’: Kamloops mayor outlines hurdles facing Stuart Wood preservation after community rally

“That’s only the first step, of course. The next step is to work with the city to get an actual plan,” Rothenburger said.

Former Kamloops councillor Nancy Bepple also was in attendance at the rally.

“This is a building we want the city and the province to get together on and say, ‘It is our community’s building, and we want it back,'” Bepple added.

Mayor Mike O’Reilly – who voted in favour of the motion to explore potential alternate sites for the new RCMP headquarters during the last council term – said the discussion is overdue, but he noted the decisions made involve more than the school.

“I think we need to look at the bigger scope of things,” O’Reilly said. “The Stuart Wood building itself is one piece of that property, but the property actually expands from Third Avenue all the way up, encompassing the cenotaph and the city’s main lift station down below on St. Paul Street, as well.”

“It’s not just a building. It’s a very large property that has a lot of value to the City of Kamloops.”

O’Reilly said the property belongs to the province, and city taxpayers cover six figures annually in upkeep.

Additionally, he noted finding a path forward has been years in the making.

“We’ve been talking to the province on this site for the better part of a decade and answers coming back from the province change over the years, and so [we’re] trying to get clear direction,” said O’Reilly. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, but the community does need to be involved and part of that conversation.”

Preserving the green space was another concern raised at the rally. On that point, O’Reilly says he does not want to see it lost.

“I don’t believe there has ever been any intent for it not to see a green space and have that there, he said. “The playground is used by many day cares. Having a green space in your downtown core when you’re densifying in and around that area is incredibly important, and so you wouldn’t want to see the green space be lost.”

As supporters of Stuart Wood push for preservation, O’Reilly says maintaining the property without resolving its future can’t continue indefinitely.

“That can’t go on forever, and some decisions need to be made working with the provincial government,” he said.

Following the weekend rally, there’s yet to be any official motion made by city council, which will hold its first meeting of the new term next Tuesday (Nov. 10). In the meantime, the Out of the Cold shelter will return for its fifth year, occupying the former school’s deteriorating interior, which was estimated to need over $10 million in repairs.

Early next year, Kamloops councillors are scheduled to decide how to fund the RCMP headquarters project, and the head of the Kamloops RCMP is optimistic the decision to revisit potential locations won’t cause the project to be delayed any further.

“It is my understanding there are multiple sites they want to examine with respect to that, and we are continuing to work with the municipality on what those sites are and whether those sites would be suitable,” Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley told CFJC Today last month.

“There was a formal plan for this [Battle Street] site specifically, and again, all options are being considered, and I have no information that it is going to currently delay the process.”

by Jeremy Russo

‘It’s not just a building’: Kamloops mayor outlines hurdles facing Stuart Wood preservation after community rally

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