After the project was delayed for nearly a year, the Wembley community hall is scheduled for demolition before the end of 2020.
The building was originally closed in 2019 due to a hazard caused by water-damaged floors.
CAO for the town of Wembley Noreen Zhang says the town council had looked into other solutions for the ageing building, but simply demolishing it and eventually starting over was deemed the most cost-effective.
“For safety reasons at that time, the hall was closed until we had an assessment into the safety of it and how much it would be to fix it.”
“In subsequent council meetings and conversations regarding the hall, it was deemed by council that… it was not financially feasible to fix [the 75-year-old building] which in the long run would still have to be replaced anyway,” she says.
The hall was originally on the docket for demolition later in 2019, though according to Zhang, the heritage society wanted to preserve the hall and move it to the heritage society for display. Due to financial hurdles such as a lack of grant funding, that idea eventually fell through.
Following that, the demolition was further delayed due to budgetary restrictions. Zhang explains now simply became an opportune time to move forward with removing the building.
“Due to budgetary constraints and other issues arising at that time, there was a hold on replacing the hall since the arena was available for space.”
She adds town administration has since been directed to look into options for eventually replacing the facility.