Last West Kelowna council meeting being held at old city hall this week

West Kelowna City Council is hosting its last meeting at the existing council chambers on Cameron Road this week.

In another update on the new city hall building, city staff say they’ve been notified that building occupancy is expected for the final week of April.

At the end of March, interim-CAO Ron Mattiussi said the equipment, processes and approval required for the chlorination testing had pushed building occupancy back by several weeks.

However, according to the latest update, the chlorination testing has been completed and passed and IT system testing at the new building has been completed and no issues were found.

Exterior civil works, like landscaping and fencing, are underway and will continue into May.

Additionally, the staff report says new furniture and partitions have arrived and are being installed.

“It will take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to properly commission and test all the infrastructure as we prepare for a fully-functional building to be operational and serve the public,” the report says.

“The final step is the completion of all necessary paperwork in order to achieve building occupancy, which we anticipate being advised of next week.”

Staff say once building occupancy is achieved, and depending on the outcome of the set-up and testing of the new council chambers audio and visual components, the confirmed date of the first council meeting at the new city hall will be announced to the public.

Over the next week, residents will notice various stages of site finished, preparation and move-in activity.

During this time communication from the six organizations moving into the new building will “ramp up,” say city staff.

That includes the City of West Kelowna administration, the Okanagan Regional Library – West Kelowna Library Branch, the office for the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) – Kelowna West and the office for the Member of Parliament (MP) - Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola.

The office for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) and ServiceBC will be moved into the building as part of a pilot project.

An official opening ceremony is still expected to happen in the summer.