The Town of Wembley is continuing to look for replacements for the Wembley Community Hall and town office. CAO Noreen Zhang says town council has been looking at options like finding existing buildings in the area they could refurbish but those ideas didn’t work in the long term.
“We looked into those options but what I’m realizing is rather than having one that is good enough, for now, what I would like to actually look into is for something that can grow with the town.”
“More of a facility that will serve not just as an improvement of the community hall that we had but something that will serve as a centre or a focal point for the town as we grow bigger,” she adds.
The Wembley Community Hall has been closed since May 2019 after the town said repairs needed to be made to the floor. At this point, Zhang says fixing up the old hall is not an option.
“Fixing it is going to be a quick bandaid fix that’s going to, in the end, still need a significant amount of upgrades and renovations in order for it to be safe and usable. So rather than putting a lot of money into that, what I would like to see is something that we can actually have a longer use for.”
Zhang says a final decision on the location and cost of a new community hall could be made in April when the final budget is set.