Mayor Tom Zeleznik has asked architect Richard Hunter to look at moving the village office into a space in the arena.
Zeleznik says the current village office at 91 1st Street NW isn’t ideal for staff.
“One problem is there isn’t much room for parking and there’s only stairs going up to the second floor of the building for our council meetings,” said Zeleznik.
“That makes it really hard for some people to get up there.”
The building was renovated from an apartment complex into an office space before village staff moved in. Staff would look at converting the building back into housing and use the money generated from the sale to establish the new office space.
“If we renovated our current office back into affordable housing, it would be located right across from the Arrow Heights project that’s almost complete. That’d be a win-win for everybody,” said Zeleznik.”
The new office space would be located in a big, flat area on top of the curling rink. Both an architect and engineer would likely be temporarily hired to renovate the area.
Zeleznik notes the new office space would be much more accessible for everyone.
“Everything would be located on one main level, including the council room,” said Zeleznik.
“It would also be easier to access with much more parking available on site.”
Thousands of dollars would be saved as the potential office space and other amenities in the arena are set to be heated with biomass down the road.
“This would be an energy efficient building where we could heat the arena, community centre, the auditorium and the village office primarily with wood waste. ”
The village office would be separate from other parts of the arena and it would have its own access point.
Village council got the idea about moving the office into the arena after receiving a tour of the Westbank First Nation’s community centre last summer.
“When we had a chance to tour the WFN’s community centre, their village office, community centre and school was all in one area,” said Zeleznik.
“It just made economic sense for the WFN.”
The project is still in the preliminary stages and staff are unsure it will go ahead.
No timelines or costs have been given yet.
READ MORE: Village of Nakusp looks to power sports complex with clean or reduced energy
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