Delta council this week approved a $1.4 million contract to rehabilitate the former home of Delta Museum in Ladner Village. The contract will see significant structural work as well as the removal of the rear annex portion of the building that for many years housed the archives.
A separate contract had previously been awarded and work is now underway to remove hazardous material, including asbestos.
In total, the rehabilitation of the century-old building will cost $2.5 million, which includes a $500,000 grant from the federal government.
The building, which will get an elevator, will be the new home of the community police station and have public washrooms. Other uses are expected in the future.
Ken Kuntz, director of Delta's parks, recreation and culture department, told the Optimist the renovation work should be completed by the end of this year.
As for the museum, it will have a new home in the first floor of the former courthouse building in Ladner's civic precinct, adjacent to the Delta Archives and Edgar Dunning Reading Room. The 8,500-square-foot facility will have interactive displays and features that weren't part of the old museum.
"We are now getting close to doing our planning work for the new space for the museum and going through a visioning exercise right now to determine the shape and functionality and objectives," Kuntz explained. "Once that's done, we'll start putting pen to paper and hopefully by the end of 2017 or early 2018 be in a position to re-open that kind of facility."
One of the terms for Delta providing the Delta Museum Society with a new home was that the municipality take over day-to-day operations. The society agreed with the plan last year but still has a role to play as the agreement stipulates it will remain the owner of the collection.
