Weaver Heritage Park may see some changes after council adopted its Weaver Heritage Park Master Plan.
The plan was adopted at the Sept. 23 regular council meeting. The master plan provides a high-level operational framework for the future of the park.
“The challenges people who were confused in the community, about is this a budget and we’re spending 12 million next year? No, we’re not,” explained Mayor Gerald Aalbers. “Is there money to be spent at Weaver Park? That’s to be determined by council and what steps to go forward working with administration.”
Aalbers says master plans are created to oversee what needs to be done.
He also spoke about the various concerns raised about the plan.
“Certain people would like to see more emphasis put on agriculture, more on oil and gas, more in the history of our community, which is deep in history,” said Aalbers. “There’s a balancing from that perspective, there’s the development of the park but what does the potential museum look like.”
The key objectives are, interpretive recommendations, physical rehabilitation and renovation, thematic development, event hosting and year-round programming.
The Master plan also includes a section to ensure the Weaver Park Site accommodates a future Museum Building. The current museum is located at 4207 44 St. near the Corner of the Highway and 47 Ave.
Weaver Park’s upgrades and changes would be done in multiple phases. Phase 1 includes building, fencing and demolition, phase 2 and 3a include grading and site servicing. Phase 3b includes pathways fencing and landscaping with phase 3c tackling much the same but fencing should be done at this stage. Finally phase 4 will see the final build out of the project. The total cost of the project being just under $11 million.
The plan is a conceptual design while detailed design would still need to be completed for many of the finer items.
There are several buildings that sit in Weaver Park permanently. These historical fixtures include the Log Cabin, Rendell House, Rendell Barn, Turvey Station, Weaver House, Salt House, CPR Shed, Battle Hills School and Log Minister.
Some of the listed buildings have been recommended to be moved while others will retain their original locations.
The two buildings being recommended for removal are Britannia Municipal Office and Marshall Church.
Council tackled numerous topics about displays and pathway concerns in the park. During question-and-answer the question was raised regarding adequate storage.
“Ensuring what we have properly represents Lloydminster, and that we’re not collecting items for the sake of collecting items because they’re historical or because they’re old or because they’re vintage,” what we do need to do is audit what we have in our collection, ensure what we have in our collection should be in our collection,” said Natalie Clysdale, manager, Lloydminster Museum and Archives.
Aalbers says it’s important to consider the price of maintaining the various items and buildings.
“History comes with a price, and certainly by donating it to the museum is one thing, when it was donated it was donated in a certain state,” he said. “It takes efforts to maintain buildings, so one of those challenges, sometimes it’s simply cosmetic, but there’s also other challenges to keeping those updates done.”
A key issue discussed at previous council meetings was the lack of water drainage at the site.
“One item that was clearly identified is the landscaping issues and water drainage at the property of Weaver Park. That is the number one issue that needs to be addressed,” said Aalbers. “I heard about it 19 plus years ago when I came to the city and it’s still prevalent today.”
He says it’s important for council to work with administration and deal with the water drainage issue before any further development is done on the property.
Coun. Jonathan Torresan believes in the plan for the park.
“I think when you look at the master plan, it’s an awesome plan in terms of creating a new park space in our community that really will be another gem that we can have,” he said.
Since this is a high-level operational framework for the future of the park, future detailed design would be presented to council once it is available.
Read more: Committee seeks more information on Weaver Park master plan
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