Editor: With Council having purchased the former Sears store, I’m sure many readers do not realize that the Community Hub will not use the existing store as is.
I believe the plan is to demolish the exterior of the building, with only the steel frame and perhaps some structural walls retained as part of a new building to be erected on the site.
This is why it will cost $53 million.
May I suggest a cheaper alternative?
Move the library to the ground floor of the existing Sears building, retaining the current brick exterior. Add an additional entrance onto King Street, keep the rear doors for accessible vehicles to drop off at, and brick up the side door on Fifth Street.
This will give the library space for both existing programs and future uses.
Move the museum to the building currently used as the library. The museum should be a tourist attraction, and locating it downtown in a standalone building would enable it to be open at times when visitors are in Chatham i.e summer weekends, stat holidays, etc.
Refurbish the existing Civic Centre, a beautiful building, but make the refurbishment work easier, and therefore cheaper, by temporarily moving departments to the second floor of the Sears building and rotating them back as work progresses (i.e move one floor at a time).
Keep the existing council chambers in place, but improve access by adding an additional accessible elevator attached to the exterior of the building, opposite the existing elevator. See if the space currently used by the YourTV team could be freed up for additional seating/wheelchair use. Work with YourTV to find them space elsewhere.
Keep the existing fire department Station 1, saving $10 to $20 million.
Once the Civic Centre refurbishment was completed, work with the owners of 100 King to see if the second-floor space would fit into their plans, or if not, work with a developer to convert it into small affordable apartments, bringing more people to live in our beautiful downtown.
I feel this would be a better, cheaper solution than the current proposals.
John Willatt
Chatham
