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Keeping Jasper’s activity centre safe and standing is an expensive business.
This week, town council approved nearly $100,000 spending on more essential repairs to the building.
Back in December, the council approved the capital budget for 2019 to 2023, with the exception of some projects earmarked for further discussion.
And this week, three items were on the agenda for the activity and aquatic centre: roof beams, the dressing room walls and the surface around the wade pool.
The Culture and Recreation department asked the council for a $53,000 loan to pay for the roof beam project. The project will see the beams refinished and sealed, with a new water shield installed on the beams.
The department director, Yvonne McNabb, said the refinishing should be included on the preventative maintenance schedule. She said it has now been eight years since the structure was built and it is in need of attention.
“This is an item that needs to occur as we do not want permanent damage to the building,” she said.
Flashing was not installed on the beams when it was built so water is leaking into the fitness centre.
The flashing guides water from the drainage plane to outside.
The current eave and rafter flashing “do not adhere to best practices” and a new design has been proposed with a new “weather shield membrane” to create a barrier from the water.
Gordon Hutton, who works in the Operations department, told Jasper council: “I feel that with the proper membranes and flashing in place we will not have this issue again.
"This was done incorrectly at the start. If it was done correctly at the start this would not be an issue.”
Councillor Jenna McGrath said: “Best practices were not followed. It’s frustrating to see this much deterioration already when we had architects and engineers work on the building. We can’t let it continue to happen.”
McNabb also asked for money from the council’s reserves: $25,000 to recoat the dressing room walls and $11,000 to resurface the wade pool.
High humidity levels has caused the paint to peel in the dressing rooms, causing complaint issues with Alberta Health. McNabb wants to repaint the cinder block walls with an epoxy type coating to prevent this in the future.
The coating on the wade pool is also starting to peel, causing a health concern for trapped bacteria and a hazard for fingers and toes. McNabb said the coating is usually reapplied every five years from the restricted reserve plan but was last done seven years ago.
Council was reluctant to pay for the maintenance work out of their savings for capital projects.
Councillor Paul Butler said: “This is a question of ongoing maintenance so shouldn’t we be accumulating reserves when this kind of item comes up?”
Mayor Richard Ireland said council “has to send a message at some point” that maintenance and capital projects are different.
“People can’t expect overdue maintenance to become a capital spend,” he said.
Despite their protests, the council voted to splash the cash on all three projects as proposed to them.
Correction: A previous version of this story quoted Gordon Hutton as Director of Operations. John Greathead is the new Director of Operations, Hutton was acting director of the department until Greathead took over at the beginning of the year.
