EDITORIAL – The time has come to plan for a new Kamloops city hall building

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

SOMETHING THAT HASN’T received nearly enough attention is the need for a new Kamloops city hall. Maybe that’s changing.

A report to a council committee on renovating and expanding the RCMP building on Battle Street surprisingly broached the idea of eventually turning it into a city hall.

It’s one of two options in the report and would limit upgrades that are specific to the RCMP and focus on setting up for a transition to municipal use.

The concept makes a lot of sense. At the time the Battle Street building was constructed in 1990 on the rubble of the historic Allan Matthews school building, it was expected to take care of the RCMP’s needs for 10 years — we’re a couple of decades past that now.

A new city hall has been needed just as long. The current location on Victoria Street West is long past its prime and functionality.

Twenty years ago, a city hall committee began looking into possible sites, with the idea of setting up a reserve fund that would grow for several years until shovels were in the ground.

Unfortunately, when Terry Lake became mayor, the committee and the planning were dropped.

The Battle Street RCMP building was never on the radar — until now — and isn’t the most attractive option for a new city hall. There are several other locations in the downtown area that would make for a more central location with a new purpose-built facility.

But Battle Street might be the best chance we have for a new city hall. It could contain both the main administrative functions and the planning and engineering departments that currently inhabit a building kitty corner on Seymour Street.

The cost would be considerable — seven or eight times as much as it would have been 20 years ago, and it would take a massive campaign to get public support.

Let’s hope this council has the political courage to move it forward.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.