The Tk’emlúps First Nation and the City of Kamloops are making slow progress in efforts to convert the old Stuart Wood school into a civic cultural centre.
After the latest meeting, Mayor Ken Christian says both sides need to get a ruling from the B.C Government since stipulations made one hundred years ago said if the school is ever closed it must be used for certain purposes.
“Right now we are at the stage of putting an application to the government to get the restrictions on the title of that property removed. Essentially it said it could only be used for school and we think we have a joint proposal that should be favourably looked at by the provincial government.”
Christian says once all the questions have been answered they will approach Heritage Canada about any funding that may be available.
The City is looking at spending 200 thousand dollars on improvements around the old Stuart Wood School.
Capital Projects Manager Darren Crundwell says the goal is to make the area around the site safer and more functional while the proposal for a First Nations / Civic cultural centre moves forward.
Crundwell says among the improvements, removing existing fencing and replacing it with decorative material along 3rd Ave and St. Paul Street.
“There are pathways between Stuart Wood Memorial Hill Park including some maintenance of trees and there is fencing around there that is falling over and I believe its a six foot high chain link fence, so we are looking at removing that.”
Crundwell says approval is still pending from the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation before the proposal goes before council.