The new community centre now provides the city and its residents with 10,0002 ft. of additional space to better meet the growing needs of a community that has seen its population increase by almost 80% in the last decade.
The community centre was built at the beginning of 2001, twelve years after Mr. Pierre Demers (then president of the Cedarbrook Citizens Association) recruited members from various non-profit organizations (the Cercle des fermières, the Golden Age Club, the Moussaillons, etc.) to form a citizens' committee. In October 1989, the committee was granted its charter under the name of the Saint-Lazare Community Centre Association (SLCCA). Shortly thereafter, the SLCCA suggested the city poll its residents to learn about their priorities. Conducted by Léger et Léger, the poll revealed that a community centre ranked as their third main priority (with a library and trails as their 1st and 2nd priorities respectively). From 1990 until today, the various city councils and managers have been involved in this project. The current city council closely examined the project and came up with a simple, practical and affordable centre.
On March 14, 2000, the city hired architect Normand Langlois to draw the plans and estimates for the future cultural and recreation centre. On September 5, 2000, the building contract was awarded to Entreprise Emerco for an amount of $ 884,542. On October 3, 2000, all those involved celebrated the beginning of the construction work.
The single-storey centre includes two main halls, the Saint-Louis Hall and the Saint-Charles Hall (which can both be divided into three smaller rooms) and can accommodate close to 300 people in a wide range of activities such as exhibitions, conferences, dances, film screenings, fairs, bingo games and much more. In addition to permanently housing the city's recreational services, it is the new location for all city council meetings (previous meetings were held in the basement of the Catholic church). The center is a wonderful complement to the church and schools whose halls are already used at full capacity. It offers many amenities such as storage rooms for recreational and sports equipment, a full kitchen for caterers, a stage for theatre productions, etc.
The centre was paid for with funds raised by the Saint-Lazare Community Centre Association (a minimum of $ 185,000), with funds set aside by the city for that purpose ($ 100,000), through an accumulated surplus as of December 31, 2000 ($ 550,000) and the remaining balance, through a surplus from the budgeted revenue for the current year (a maximum of $ 50,000). However, changes had to be made to the building contract because of some professional mistakes and restrictions related to the land, raising the costs by $ 100,000, an additional expense which was paid for directly through the budget surplus as of December 31, 2000.
Located on Du Bois Street, near the À l'orée-du-bois school, the centre came to life thanks to the vision and dedication of a great number of volunteers, local groups and individuals, city councilors, managers and members of the Saint-Lazare Community Centre Association, the last of which organized more than 400 fund-raising events.
