Ground broken at site of Armstrong’s new city hall

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The current city hall was built in 1918, and had undergone a lot of work in its lifetime including remodeling and adding a larger police services area and additional offices.

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Pieper told Vernon Matters that leaving behind a building that’s over a century old for a bigger and better building is exciting.

“All of the heating and electrical and everything in the old building is 105 years old, so it’s going to be really nice,” said Pieper.

“A lot more space [for] working and a lot more space in the council chambers and for the public. It’s just going to serve our community a lot better.”

He added that having the bigger space for staff to work out of will be one of the biggest benefits of the new city hall.

“It’s really jammed up in our current office. We have our Public Works manager working in one building at the shop; we’ve got a building inspector working in an office that has got no windows, it’s more or less a closet. We’ve got nowhere for an emergency operations centre and we’ll have that in the (new) basement. So it will just be really a tremendous improvement,” said Pieper adding that the public will also see some benefits from the new building.

“We’ll have a better [area to meet the public], we’ll have larger council chambers with more media opportunities. It will just be a tremendous improvement all around for our community.”

There will be technological upgrades at the new city hall, including cameras to broadcast and record council meetings.

Pieper also said the new building will include some environmentally-friendly elements.

“It will be insulated a lot better, it will have a more efficient heating system, more efficient electrical system. It will have allowances for electrical charging stations, stuff like that. It will definitely meet today’s standards as far as going into this century.”

A concept picture of the new city hall on display at the Odd Fellows Hall.

Floor plan layouts for the new city hall building on display at the Odd Fellows Hall.

Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo was also in attendance for the ground breaking. He told Vernon Matters that the bigger building should have some benefits to the public.

“If you’ve never been to the existing municipal hall, it’s pretty small. There’s not a lot of room for folks to come and attend council meetings, so the new facility is going to have a much larger council chamber which will provide more opportunities for residents to come in and actually attend in person once we get past the COVID pandemic and can start opening things up again,” said Kyllo.

“I know staff are really looking forward to being in a new, state-of-the-art facility that’s got a lot of room and better work dynamics in terms of being able to interact with each other. So it’s just a fantastic opportunity and I’m really proud of mayor and council for their initiative in moving this project forward.”

There is no plan yet for what to do with the old city hall when they move into the new building, said Pieper.

“It’s very expensive to remodel, so I think its life is doomed. It’s not that historical of value. We’ve had the historical people look at it, and we’ll be working with them over the next couple of years to see what to do with it.”

Pieper did note that the old vault door will be salvaged from the existing city hall and incorporated into the new building.

The budget for the new city hall is $4 million, and Pieper said the engineering costs and the tender are pretty close to that figure, so it should stay on budget.

The new city hall is expected to be fully built and operational by the end of the year.

Former Armstrong mayors Jerry Oglow and Eric Hornby were in attendance for the ground breaking ceremony. (Liam Verster/Vernon Matters Staff)

Armstrong’s mayor and councillors at the ground breaking ceremony. (Liam Vertser/Vernon Matters Staff)

Approximately 15 people, mostly city staff and council members, were at the site for the ground breaking ceremony, and another five people watched from the sidewalk beyond the fence. (Liam Verster/Vernon Matters Staff)

The gathering of city staff and councilors for the ground breaking ceremony. (photo by Liam Verster/Vernon Matters Staff)