Building Renovation

We are SO EXCITED to let you all know that we are moving forward with the next steps of our building renovation!  Your AGCL Building Committee was able to obtain three competitive quotes for the project contract, and we are pleased to announce that we will be partnering with Pemco Construction Ltd to revitalize our facility.  As such, we wanted to let you know what you can expect in the coming months.

Our construction timelines will run from January through June 2024.  During that time, there are a couple of impacts to be aware of.  First, the League parking lot is going to be inaccessible to the public as we need to accommodate required areas for material disposal and lay-down, as well as construction site set up, worker access and accessible haul routes.  For both safety and security reasons, the parking lot gate will remain locked, with the League and Pemco having access as needed.

Secondly, our ice rink operation is going to be impacted.  The warm temperatures of November aside, with the significant cost of managing our rinks and the likelihood of our ice making equipment being inaccessible due to construction, the League was preparing to cancel our rinks altogether, for the entirety of the season.  However we have had a couple of people come forward, who are willing to volunteer their time to try to get one surface up and running.  They will be flooding the large boarded rink in the coming weeks, with the hopes of having a surface ready sometime in December.  We will assess the situation in mid-January to see if we will be able to keep the rink operational, as once construction starts we will no longer be able to access our water lines.  We will keep you posted as to whether this situation will be manageable; there is a chance our season could be shortened.  That being said, I would like to stress a couple of important factors:

1. Our one usable surface will need to be shared use between our hockey enthusiasts and free skaters.  Please be respectful of each other so we all have the opportunity to enjoy our rink.
2. This years flooding and rink clearing will be all volunteer based.  Once the rink is built, you will likely see the call out for any volunteers interested in assisting with clearing in order to maintain it.  If you are one of the enthusiasts in our ‘hood who enjoy this amenity, please consider chipping in to help out this year.

The AGCL Board recognizes that there have been hundreds of volunteer hours invested by many community members over the past couple of decades, that have assisted in getting us to this point – we hope you will all take some pride having facilitated this project!

The Aspen Gardens Community League has been working towards a facility upgrade for almost a decade. As many of you know, the initial goal was to build an addition onto the existing Hall, providing a new, large room for multi-purpose community use. In order for that to be possible, the electrical transformer that serviced the building had to be relocated, which was a project that took a couple of years to complete as it involved obtaining provincial and municipal grants, and much coordination with Epcor and the City of Edmonton. Once the additional land space was available for use, the building plans could be initiated and the appropriate grant applications to support a building expansion, could be submitted.

AGCL applied for municipal and provincial grants in the amount of $400,000 (each) in the hopes that we would have almost $1,000,000 to complete the expansion. We were successful in being awarded a large City of Edmonton grant in 2020 (up to $400,000), but were denied a provincial grant three years in a row (2019, 2020, 2021). Feedback received from the Province indicated that it was unlikely we would be considered for this grant without further significant investment by the League to move the project to a “construction ready” stage, and even then, there was no guarantee a grant would be forthcoming. However, in the Spring of 2022, the City of Edmonton advised that they would allow us to still collect on our large municipal grant if we wished to change the scope of our project. The large municipal grant option was suspended in 2022, making it likely that this would be our last opportunity to receive significant financial support for a single project. The League had to make a decision to either relinquish the grant opportunity and leave things as is, or re-vamp the plans to see what kind of facility upgrade would be possible with a revised budget, and keep pushing forward. We chose the latter.

Working with a construction consultant, a structural engineer and an architect, we have revisited our original building footprint and developed a plan that will see significant changes to the configuration of existing floor space. Most notably, we will be removing interior walls to create a large, open-space main room that will have new garden doors and picture windows, installing a new kitchen and redesigning storage spaces to better accommodate League assets.

The League has set aside a significant amount of savings to match against the grant money to give us the largest working budget possible. However, we are unable to use grant money to purchase non-fixed equipment (ie. fridge, stove, dishwasher, kitchen implements, AV equipment, new furniture etc). To that end, the League approached the community in the form of straight-up donations towards the cause! You stepped up and donated a total of $35,160 which exceeded our goal.