Five years later, the Veiner Centre resembles a seniors’ centre once more

By Gillian Slade on April 7, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade

When flood waters damaged the Veiner Centre in the summer of 2013, nobody thought it would take five years to restore. But Medicine Hat’s seniors community is now only months away from seeing it emerge from disaster like a fresh flower after rain.

“We will be done by summertime,” said Scott Woodside, facilities project co-ordinator for the city.

It is roughly a year since work began on the transformation of the old building.

LaVerne Noble, chair of the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee, says she is adding a couple months to the expected completion date, just to be on the safe side, and is looking at September or October for the opening.

It does not take Woodside long to define what he feels is one of the most exciting aspects of the building.

“The exterior of the building, specifically the roofline and the front entrance … you see it on paper but when you actually see it constructed it really struck me and you look at it and say, ‘Wow, this is a nice looking building.’

“They did a good job on design for sure. It is something different but modern and looks really good.”

Momentum is increasing for those who have been involved in the process.

“Very excited about it coming on stream. I go by and watch it almost on a weekly basis,” said Noble.

For some seniors the excitement of a new centre is yet to come. After five years of waiting they want to see the project complete before cheering, said Noble.

There were years of planning for a new seniors’ centre, including some time lost on a misunderstanding around a budget. But it was not in vain, said Noble.

“The time that we spent planning, particularly planning what it was going to be — not necessarily where it was going to be — is still very much in place,” said Noble. “When it is all done, that planning we put into it is going to be there. The kinds of spaces we thought we needed, the reasons that we needed them, those sorts of things are all very much in place. I’m quite frankly proud of that.”

There are some unique features inside.

“In the dining area there’s two other rooms, that they call breakout rooms 1 & 2. The breakout rooms have these wing walls that actually retract up into the ceiling. That opens up the area into one big area in the shape of a ‘T.’ It’s got multi-functioning spaces that are really ideal actually,” said Woodside.

“We are going to have a very functional seniors’ centre in the end that we can be proud of,” said Noble.

The new centre really is new — it will be hard to identify any aspects of the old building.

“I do think when they made the final decision to go back to the old site that they had hoped there was more of the old building that they could salvage, but I don’t think they found that to be the case,” said Noble.

Graham Construction is the contractor for the $9.67-million project, which will see 1,400 square metres of remediated space on the main floor of the existing building and the closure of the basement. An additional 600 square metres has been added.

The entire $11.6-million budget for this transformation was approved by council in February 2016. This budget includes $1,325,770 for design/project management/testing and $400,000 for furnishings, fixtures and equipment.

There have been some weather challenges for the construction crew, including strong wind that took trees down and extremely cold temperatures. Rain may play a role in the coming months as well. Careful planning has meant construction could proceed through winter.

After the 2013 flood there was plenty of talk about establishing a new seniors’ centre in an already vacant building. Within months that changed to a new building designed to meet the future needs of seniors in the community, and it would be built in a new location.

A year after the flood, a “pause button” was triggered to take another look at the viability of repairing and expanding the original Veiner Centre.

By the summer of 2016 there was a plan for a new Veiner Centre to emerge from the flood waters of 2013.

Some trees had to be removed to make way for the construction process. Asbestos also had to be removed.

By July 2017, there was very little of the old building remaining — it was a shell of its former self. By September, steel beams gave shape to the new building that had been simply a design on paper before.

“It really has gone fairly smoothly. It’s been made easier because I have a good construction crew and I’ve got a good consultant and I do spend a lot of time overseeing the project as well,” said Woodside, who is on site every day. “Nothing has tripped us up. We’re still on schedule.”

If everything goes according to plan, the new Veiner Centre is expected to reopen in the summer.

There will be a period of adjustment for everyone upon moving to the new seniors’ centre, said Noble. Change is not often welcome and it takes time to adjust.

For the many seniors’ groups that have been meeting all over the city, a return to the Veiner Centre will be most welcome, said Noble, who finds it remarkable that most groups have survived despite challenges incurred by meeting in numerous locations.

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