ROTHENBURGER – City, heritage advocates must step up to restore St. Andrew’s
Scorched side of St. Andrew’s where fire started. (Image: Mel Rothenburger)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
St. ANDREW’S ON THE SQUARE sustained considerable damage in a fire this morning (Thursday, May 2, 2024) and it will take quite a while to get it back into usable shape.
The fire is believed to have started in a homeless person’s shopping cart on one side of the historic old building toward the back alley shortly before 9 a.m., and spread up the wall of the church and into the attic before Kamloops Fire and Rescue could bring it under control.
(Image: Kamloops Fire Rescue)
At the least, there will be extensive smoke and water damage to the interior but it could have been much worse. Sprinklers went off inside the building, causing much of the water damage but the fire was largely contained to the exterior.
The fire knocked out a transformer, causing a power outage in the area, and Fortis had to deal with a gas line. Firefighters had to get at the fire through the roof, and also broke open the main front door to gain access inside.
The town is abuzz about St. Andrew’s being a popular venue for weddings and other events, and concerns about where they’ll go. And then, of course, homelessness will undoubtedly be raised in the context of the number of fires associated with the street population.
But immediate attention needs to be paid to the future of this iconic building, which has been with us since 1887. Recent arrivals to the tournament capital might not know that it was originally a Presbyterian Church and that famous Kamloops politician and preacher Phil Gaglardi ministered there when it became a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada church in the late 1940s with a new name — Calvary Temple.
Gaglardi partly restored the building but also had a very ugly addition constructed, turning it into a downtown eyesore. In the 1990s, the City council of the day leaned toward tearing the whole thing down because, as one councillor described it, it had become “an old pile of boards.”
Thanks to the amazing efforts of heritage volunteers, however, the church was saved, the addition removed, and the building restored to its original glory. The site of the addition was turned into the beautiful little park so enjoyed by residents today along with the church itself.
To lose it now would be tragic. The City must step up and make certain it is once again restored to its original condition.
There’s no official word on that yet. The City posted on social media today that St. Andrew’s on the Square “is a pinnacle of culture and heritage in our downtown core. We are saddened by the fire that occurred on site today and would like to extend a huge thank you to Kamloops Fire Rescue for their work to extinguish the flames.
“We do not yet know the extent of the damage or what the future holds, but we move forward with optimism that the facility will not be lost.”
(Image: Mel Rothenburger)
The post said anyone who made a booking for the church will be contacted when more information is available.
Those words are reassuring but the City has not had a stellar record with regard to St. Andrew’s, including the manner in which it muscled the Kamloops Heritage Society — the same group that saved it from the wrecker’s ball and restored it — out of its management role just a few years ago.
Now is the time for the remnants of heritage preservation groups to come forward and advocate in the strongest terms for the City to live up to its assurance that it regards St. Andrew’s as “a pinnacle of culture and heritage” and that it will “not be lost.”
(Image: Mel Rothenburger)
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.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Bravo to Mel Rothenburger and also to Mel Formanski. Your words speak volumes. I was also on the board of the Kamloops Heritage Society operating St Andrews On the Square for about 15 years and I agree we cannot let the city use this tragedy as a reason to bring back the wrecking ball and try to get rid of our best and most photographed piece of treasured heritage.
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If an outdoor rink can be built in times of global warming, surely an acceptable effort can be made to restore St. Andrew’s on the Square.
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Ask people who were around the area and you’ll quickly figure out the cause. Fires rarely spontaneously combust. But there sure have been a lot of fires in town over the years. I wonder why?
What is it going to take for people to stand up to this chaos? A building burning with trapped seniors inside? An explosion that levels a city block? Just so we don’t confine addicts and mentally ill people in asylums? I got news for you – the entire city is a mental asylum!
Progressives, what say you? Another piece of acceptable collateral damage in the quest to make everything worse for everyone?
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Kevin Falcon and your boys closed all the “asylums” so there are no hospitals for the addicts to go too. Kevin Falcon and your boys didn’t build any housing so these addicts have nowhere to go. The present gov’t is playing catchup building housing all over the place. Sending addicts to jail presents several problems such as it doesn’t treat the addiction so the addicted worsen their condition. We also don’t have enough jails and it’s by far the most expensive option which prevents govt’s from spending more on housing and supports b/c they’re spending more on prisons which are the least effective way to fight this drug epidemic.
If Kevin Falcon and your boys had invested whilst in office we wouldn’t be so far behind but they choose to spend $700 million on BC Place renovation AFTER the Olympics were over as an example of their spending priorities.
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Mac, it’s weird that you make these presumptions of whom I vote for, who “my boys” are, allege political affiliations where none exist… at least there’s less ad hominem this time.
Let’s try your approach on you.
Your boys the NDP instituted a completely naive regime of “smoke all the meth you want” and believed it would make things better. They couldn’t have been that stupid but they were. NDPers still believe it works, even after your boy David Eby made an embarrassing u-turn (this is how dogmatic your comrades are).
Your boy David Eby didn’t build treatment centres to get addicts off the street, instead NDPers enjoy random attacks, arsons, the torching of historic buildings and unabated drug use in hospitals and restaurants.
Your boy David Eby directed the Crown not to prosecute many crimes associated with the street chaos around us.
Your boy David Eby put his political life ahead of the BS he was repeating for over a year. So either your boy is a liar, or he wants to “send people into the shadows” to die and “criminalize” this. No one can respect that expect an NDPer.
Your boy David Eby thinks no consequences for actions is an acceptable way to have a society.
This isn’t a housing issue even though your boys say it is. A house no more cures an addict or mental health problems than it gives them 4 private walls to overdose in (your boys mantra about not dying alone, remember?).
Jail is expensive? I think once you add up the cost to businesses, loss of commerce from power outages, police and ambulance coming down 800 times to a single address, hospital costs, crime and all the rest of it that your boys promote, jail will be extremely affordable.
Your boys love chaos, they love not holding people accountable, they love revolving door justice and woke BS policies, they love throwing billions of dollars at this issue and seeing zero improvement, they love not learning the lessons of every other place that fell on its face trying this, they love random stabbings and smoking meth in hospitals, they love seeing drug dealers infiltrate SROs, they love diversion, and most of all, they love that their boys STILL come out and cheerlead all of this.
Any other progressives have something to say? It’s important that we meet you where you’re at, lower the stigma for you and try to get you into treatment.
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My boy Eby has been premiere for 17 months not like your boys who were in for 17 years. My boy is pushing to build more and more housing and treatment facilities, making announcements of new builds weekly, your boys spent 17 years closing facilities and low cost housing such as Little Mountain Social Housing in Vancouver. You complain about accountability, by boy fired the board and CAO of BC Housing because of their failures, he’s setting the tone, do your job or lose your job, your boys hired conies to do nothing other than pick up cheques.
“Your boy David Eby directed the Crown not to prosecute many crimes associated with the street chaos around us”. Yes he did during covid as the courts weren’t giving jail sentences so what was the point, moreover, this was happening through the country.
“Open use” is nothing more than a stopgap measure to buy time for the addict. Addicts who overdose alone die, when they overdose with others they more often survive, you may have no use for addicts but their mothers, fathers, siblings, etc. differ. He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day.
“This isn’t a housing issue even though your boys say it is.” A 2010 study in Community Mental Health Journal compared participants with a history of homelessness, mental illness, and substance use issues enrolled in Housing First programs against participants in Treatment First programs. A year after entering their programs, Treatment First participants were nearly three and a half times more likely to use substances than Housing First participants. This issue has been studied ad nauseam with the same findings, this isn’t new but your guys ignored it leaving others to clean up the mess.
“B.C. takes critical step to address public use of illegal drugs Updated Oct. 5, 2023”. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023PSSG0059-001546. Eby was looking to tweak this Federal Gov’t experiment (yes this is a federal gov’t initiative which the province agreed to, meaning we are jr partners).
As Jr. partners the province can’t unilaterally make large scale changes, they can monitor, tweak and make recommendations based upon the data and ask for changes based upon what they are seeing, as they are doing. Asking for changes isn’t a sign of defeat, rather it’s the responsible thing to do. Furthermore, since there is no other similar program run on this continent, it’s rather naive to think things would not have any problems.
Jail has been proven time and again to be the most expensive form whilst simultaneously being the least effective modality in fighting drug use and addiction, so why are you advocating we continue the failed “just say no” path of yesterday? The same old same old doesn’t work, Alberta is evidence of that. This gov’t is trying something new based on other jurisdictions limited successes, we’re building off of others, thinking outside the box, challenging traditional views/norms, pursuing creative solutions. In short, they’re getting off the sidelines and trying to solve the problem, it’s easy to backseat drive, it’s difficult to lead.
Our increasing overdose rate is growing slower over the past few years than those found in Alberta, yet we are finding more Albertans in the BC with addictions dependencies than BC’ers in Alberta. The two biggest magnets of homeless addicts are close proximity to port cities (Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fran, LA etc.) due to the immediate access to more potent drugs (fentanyl for example) and warm weather (BC, Washington, Oregon, California, etc) which makes living outside less dangerous. You’ll notice Alberta is conspicuously absent from either of these. It’s because we have warmer weather and a major port that Albertans are coming to BC. There is no evidence to suggest the policy of legalization has increased overdoses yet there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that it has slowed down the overdose rates.
We are half way thru this “experiment”, our results are no worse than our neighbours so why would we bail?
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Thank you Mel. As a founding member of the Kamloops Heritage Society, I recalled the fight we had to restore this beautiful heritage site into a much loved spot for people to make wonderful memories. It took 2 years for us to convince the city to let us proceed with the restoration. We ran the site very successfully for 25 years and served thousands of people each year. It has been painfully obvious that our city’s heritage sites have been a thorn in the side of our city officials. The sites take more care than the boring brick and glass buildings but their character gives our city flavor and a an important reminder of our colorful and interesting past.
I managed the site for over 25 years and was privileged to be part of hundreds of weddings, celebrations of life and other important moments in the history of our town. I hope the city will rebuild. The site is in a lot better shape than what we started with in 1996.
I encourage anyone who has had an event at St. Andrews On the Square to encourage the mayor and council and upper management to quickly restore the building to its intended use, for the use of all the citizens of Kamloops.
It was group of determined people led by a very determined woman, Kate Lawrie who got the ball rolling to restore St. Andrews and it will take a group of very determined people to persuade the city to rebuild St. Andrews On The Square.
Maybe, instead of building ridiculous architecture and pandering to a very few, maybe our city could do the common sense thing and restore a beautiful piece of our history that can be used by many.
Heritage is a non-renewable resource, cherish it.
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