The Town of Sundre's community services department is poised to settle into a more suitable office that will facilitate its operations.
Council approved during its Aug. 29 meeting a request from administrative staff to proceed with the department's relocation.
“At this time, the operations (and) community services office staff are located at the town shop situated just out in Mountain View County industrial district,” said Ian James, community services manager.
The community services staff has two offices on the second floor as well as one open-area office on the main floor at that location, he said.
“The operations department does not currently have any adequate office space that they can function properly within the shop. They're asking to take the two offices that the community services department has upstairs to accommodate their situation with their staffing.”
The community services manager told council he investigated other potential options within that building, but that there simply is not enough available space to comfortably accommodate both departments.
“Since there's no staff room or boardroom there, it seems very cramped. (And) to avoid the shuffling of staff two and three and four times — knowing that some of the operations staff share a desk — what I was tasked with was to look at other available town-owned facilities to relocate the community services department to.”
A preferable location that could adequately cater to the community services department's needs was found at the Sundre Community Centre.
“Fortunately for community services, the former playschool over at the community centre is a vacant spot, and for the purpose of community services in an ideal location where we are close to the residents, close to our tenants,” said James.
The proposed location is also much closer to the former Sundre Activity Centre near the arena, which is now a storage facility called the Community Services Building, he said.
“Everything is centrally located there. If we were to relocate to that location, we believe we'll be able to provide a higher level of service to our residents and tenants and be (more) efficient with our operations.”
The department's manager went on to acknowledge that staff understands parking could become an issue since the Sundre Community Centre's limited space caters to its other tenants — Greenwood Neighbourhood Place, the Sundre Municipal Library as well as the Sundre Daycare. For that reason, community services staff would instead park on the south side of Second Avenue NW at the Sundre Arena's parking lot, which largely sits empty during the weekdays, he said.
As for securing town-owned vehicles at night, staff could simply take them back out to the shop, which is fenced in. From the viewpoint of striving towards cost-saving measures, there is a great opportunity to reduce the expense of “needlessly” driving vehicles back and forth as well as maximizing staff efficiency by significantly reducing “gap time in between locations,” he said.
Administrative staff at the town's main office also supports the new location for community services. The closer proximity will make it easier for community services staff to ease the burden on town office reception by taking on some clerical responsibilities such as booking town-owned facilities like the Sundre Community Centre. Under the current system, anyone interested in booking the facility must get the keys from the town office as well as return them there. But with a presence at the community centre, that process will be simplified while at the same time easing the load at the town office, he said.
Additionally, the new office space would foster the ability to build stronger relationships with the community centre's other tenants, who have reportedly expressed excitement at the prospect of having the town's community services department relocate there, he said.
“We've had contractors come in to give us an estimate on what it would take to relocate” to the community centre.
James said the cost of roughly $26,000, which would be covered from a reserve fund, came in “very favourably.”
Coun. Chris Vardas said it makes more sense for the community services department to be in town as opposed to out in the county, and that he had long ago expressed a desire to do just this.
“It's a fabulous idea, so let's do it. It's important for us to be there,” he said.
Council proceeded to unanimously carry a motion to authorize the expenditure for the community services department's relocation to the community centre.
