Almost five years ago, the concept of building a two-storey addition for an Archives office onto the Centennial Building was an inspiration of the late Milton Parent, archivist of the Arrow Lakes Historical Society (ALHS) and writer of seven history books on the history of the area.
Too numerous to mention, many groups helped over the following years with funding but the support given by the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) with a $100,000 Development grant and the sum of $72,775 from the Halcyon Home Foundation gave us the courage to start building. None of the many grants written to the Province or the Federal government were successful except for the Federal New Horizons senior’s grant of $25,000 to go toward the hydraulic lift. This would benefit the many seniors who could not climb the stairs to visit the Library as well as to visit the Archives. Most of the remaining funds were obtained from our citizens of the town – some who donated and also supported the necessary five times that we requested funds from the yearly CBT Initiative grants, three obtained by the ALHS and one from the Museum and another from the Library. Donations in lieu of flowers netted us over $10,000 in Milton’s memory as well. All the other organizations in town gave some funding and people like Eric Waterfield gave of his time and equipment many times over.
We had enough funding to finish to lockup last fall – 2012 – and over the winter the furnace, ducting, rough plumbing, electrical work was completed. The dry walling is up and mudding or taping of the gyproc is now ongoing. We almost have enough funds to complete by December which is our goal, with a move to the new premises by year end.
The Archives office is on the top floor of the addition with a wheelchair accessible washroom in their space for all patrons to use. The bottom floor has a large showcase built in for the Museum and storage for the Archives, Library and the Village.
The addition is on Village owned property being built onto the Village owned Centennial building. They will be the protectors of the extensive archive material that has been gathered for years by Milton Parent and the Arrow Lakes Historical Society. We were concerned that if there was not a continuation to keep the Society going or the lease would change where we are currently at, that the material would be put into storage which would damage the fragile items.