Bigger and better community centre replaces building gutted by fire

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The new community centre on the Elizabeth Metis Settlement is bigger than the community's previous building and boasts quite a few new and improved features.

According to Kurt Ostermann, the new building is 140 feet by 80 feet, making a total floor space of 11,200 square feet. Ostermann estimated the old community centre was only about 4,000 square feet.

Ostermann is vice president of Permasteel Construction Ltd., the contractor on the construction project. According to Ostermann, Permasteel has been involved in construction of dozens of facilities for Native communities and Metis settlements across Western Canada. Among the previous projects completed by his firm are community centres in the Alberta communities of Fishing Lake, Gift Lake, Paddle Prairie, East Prairie, Peavine and Buffalo Lake.

In addition to a community hall and a seniors' drop in centre, the new community centre on the Elizabeth Metis settlement features an unfinished addition that is designated for future use as an administration area.

The new centre also has both internal and external washrooms. The latter feature has been added to better accommodate people using the nearby ball field and park. Ostermann pointed out another improvement offered by the new community centre is that it is a steel building. "It's not going to catch fire," he said.

The settlement's previous community centre was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1998.

According to Ostermann, construction of the community centre involved about a dozen subtrades and more than100 men at any given time over the four-month period the project took to complete. Ostermann said Permasteel used as much local involvement as possible for the project, such as some equipment owned by local people, and he employed local painters and labourers.

He said the total cost of the community centre construction project was in excess of half-a-million dollars.

Careful planning saved the Elizabeth Metis Settlement quite a bit of money, Ostermann explained. The settlement saved between $20,000 and $30,000 of the cost of the project just by copying the design of a community centre that was built on the Gift Lake Metis Settlement about five or six years ago. He said doing this allowed the Elizabeth people to save time as well as money, because "we didn't have to reinvent the wheel."

He added that by talking to the people of the Gift Lake Metis settlement about their experiences building a community centre, his company and the people of the Elizabeth Metis settlement were able to include changes in the design that improved the plans for the one at Elizabeth. For instance, Ostermann said that adding the external washrooms to the community centre design came as a result of that consultation with the people of Gift Lake. This was a feature Gift Lake now wishes had been included as part of their own community centre.

Ostermann explained that by talking to other communities about the building design, you can find out what things are good, and what can be made better. "Every time we do another project, we learn from the previous one, and can keep making it better and better, " he said.