Renewing BCL Hall

The Belgravia Community League (BCL) Hall has served the neighbourhood since the mid-1950s. Its original construction was a sparkling example of community commitment, with several of Belgravia’s first families contributing $1000 (think of that in 1950s dollars!) to launch the project.

The original hall was renovated in 1995 and continues to be a busy and well-used facility, home to Belgravia’s cooperative playschool, the out of school care program and nearly full booking on weeknights and weekends for meetings, exercise classes and social events. While the hall is basically sound, it is showing it age and has limitations that reduce its function and access. It is time to look at its present use as well as anticipated future use in renewing this valuable neighbourhood facility.

BCL began initial planning and committee work on renovation began in 2006 and by 2008 resulted in preliminary plans for a modest expansion of floor size on the lower and upper levels, plus interior changes. At that time initial estimates of the costs were prepared and plans were made for funding the estimated $350,000 needed for the work. As you can imagine, this is a demanding project for community volunteers and the project stalled in 2009. There have also been initial discussions on the possibility of building a new hall versus extensive renovation and expansion of the existing hall.

As the hall sits on City of Edmonton land, City staff is there to support and monitor the work. BCL board members Dale Rowe and Jeanette Boman recently met with City staff to look at the hall site towards getting the renewal process back into gear. It’s time to get rolling again, starting with further community consultation to ensure hall renewal will meet neighbourhood needs.

There are 3 areas of activity in this kind of project:

  • design and construction
  • grants and fundraising
  • volunteer coordination

If you are interested and have specific talents (or even super powers) in these areas, BCL would like to hear from you and discuss how you might be involved.

Dale Rowe :     dale.rowe@belgraviaedmonton.ca, 780 432-6233

David Ridley:   president@belgraviaedmonton.ca, 780 439-7561

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