The Steveston Community Centre is bursting at the seams but discussion on what is to be done about it — including an idea that would see life imitating art — has been left to informal discussions at committee meetings, to date.
And that hasn’t gone over well with the very people who use the facility.
Will Steveston Library move to the waterfront at Imperial Landing? Will the centre be re-purposed and renovated? Will a new centre be built across Moncton Street on the city-owned parking lot?
Those are some of the ideas being bandied about by city councillors without any consultation with the Steveston Community Society.
“Our Board is concerned that we have not been privy to these discussions or been asked officially for our position on this matter,” wrote Beth Ovenden, the society’s president, in a letter to Coun. Harold Steves, who submitted it to the parks committee.
“The Board of the Steveston Community Society wish to advise City Council of our desperate need for additional space in the community centre. Currently, our greatest need is for space for our fitness programs,” said Ovenden.
The society believes, at the least, the library needs to be relocated, if nothing else can be done.
Councillors have debated the possibility of putting a library at Imperial Landing.
Steves has since suggested exploring the idea of using the soon-to-be-abandoned Nikka Fishing Marine building, which is the fictional library for Storybrooke in the television series Once Upon a Time.
The committee referred the matter to city staff, who will report back within one year on how some options may shape the city’s capital budget.
