The City of Rossland is pleased to announce we are finalizing plans for the major renovation of our historic Miner’s Hall. The hall, which is an important community treasure, is in serious need of significant repairs.
The City has $335k in a reserve fund for this project. The Rossland Council for Arts and Culture (RCAC) has been awarded a grant of $350k from the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) to restore the heritage site and increase its longevity and functionality.
Both the city and the RCAC have applied for a number of additional grants to cover the significant costs involved as this project is estimated to cost over one million dollars. The new renovations will include the roof, siding, painting, and windows, as well as creating a completely new community space on the fourth floor. The RCAC is actively seeking additional funding to restore the façade to its original grandeur and reconfigure the exterior entry plaza.
The construction site at Miner’s Hall presents unique challenges because of the steep hillside location. With no accessible outdoor working space, managing dust and debris control, worker coordination, erecting scaffolding, and materials and tool storage is extremely complex. Removing old construction material will also be challenging and the scale is unknown at this time.
The Miner’s Hall is heavily used by the city’s recreation programs, the Pottery Society, RCAC concerts, dances, fundraisers, Ilo’s Playschool, the Gold Fever Follies, and many others. These programs will be temporarily impacted by this renovation.
After carefully considering users’ health and safety, the liability issues, and the significant costs required to maintain occupancy during construction, the city has decided to close the building during construction. The project is estimated to start February 1, 2016 and be completed by December 2016. City staff will work closely with key hall user groups to find alternate venues.
While the city understands the short-term inconvenience to users, in the long-term, the Miner’s Hall will be greatly improved and offer much more to the community. This work is essential to maintain this heritage site and restore it to its original glory.
If you have questions contact Mayor Kathy Moore 250-521-1500. Regular updates will be provided in the Council Connects newsletter and the Rossland News as the project progresses.
Submitted by
Mayor Kathy Moore