Residents using the City of Grande Prairie’s Coordinated Care Campus will be displaced for an undisclosed amount of time after a recent fire alarm revealed a massive scope of repairs needed to be made to the former Stonebridge Hotel.
Director of Protective and Social Services Chris Manuel with the city says they’re aware of the issue and plans to address it in the near future.
“The recent revelation of that fire compartmentalization piece is one that we’re looking to see if we want to bring the building up to current code standards. Although there is not a necessary requirement to do that. We are working with an architecture firm to try and figure out a timeline,” he says.
The people that were living in the rooms at the Stonebridge building are now living in trailers on-site.
“Renovation work needs to be done in the majority of the building, including the rooms those residents were occupying. It will delay adding additional residents until we’ve completed the further renovations on the second and third floors,” he says.
Despite the ongoing work on the Stonebridge building, Manuel feels the purchase and creation of the Coordinated Care Campus has helped those in need of its services.
“The project itself has provided shelter and significant addition of health care resources that weren’t available to the population group prior to the project,” he says.
At the conclusion of the Protective and Social Services council meeting, city council discussed becoming more involved with the Coordinated Care Campus Advisory Committee.
“Having a council member at that table can be seen in two lights. Certainly, if council believes they want a representative at that table we would happily accommodate that. That being said, if they’re not I believe that what’s discussed at that table is presented to all council members. I think either system works,” he adds.
Recruitment of the Coordinated Care Campus Advisory Committee is ongoing and recommended to proceed this month. The city does not expect that the completion of the work on the building will go over the $15.5 million budget.