The South Peace Regional Archives is looking for a new place to house their collection of historical treasures. Currently located at the Grande Prairie Museum at Muskoseepi Park, SPRA Society President Jan Shields says they’ve simply run out of space for their ever-growing collection.
“In fact… for two years, we’ve had to have off-site storage to hold our unprocessed material,” she says.
The society has asked members of the Community Services Committee to give the green light on a proposed 10,000 square foot space, across the parking lot from the Ernie Radbourne Pavillion, which would not only allow them to fit the current backlog of materials but would provide them with enough space to continue growing their collection.
Shields adds due to the unique nature of the materials, things like climate control and high floor weight capacity are things they need to take into consideration when looking for space.
“If you got any old pictures in your basement, you know exactly what happens to them and the written documents that you’ve got that curl up, turn yellow and die,” she says.
Members of the committee have asked the administration to look into what the cost of the land requested and to gauge support from neighbouring municipalities including the County of Grande Prairie and MD of Greenview.