Graduation ceremonies for Mount Baker Secondary School will be held in the Memorial Arena in June instead of Western Financial Place.

A significant amount of construction and renovation work in the building is expected to take place from May through the summer months. With the number of projects occurring and the number of contractors involved, it was not feasible to host both the Mount Baker grad ceremonies and the Gymnastics Club year end show.

Understanding the scope and the timing of the projects this early in the year, it was important for the city to be proactive and make these alternate arrangements with Mount Baker and the Gymnastics Club well ahead of time instead of trying to move events at a later date.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, but due to the small window of opportunity to get these projects done we really didn’t have any other options other than relocating Grad,” said Stacy Paulsen, Facility Operations Manager with the City of Cranbrook. “We have promised to stay in touch with Mount Baker through this process and if there is any chance that we can somehow manage to accommodate the grad ceremonies in WFP we will certainly make it happen. We wanted to make arrangements well in advance to ensure that the committee had ample time to plan and provide an alternative solution.”

“I want to thank the staff for their outreach to the Mount Baker grad organizers and working with them to coordinate other arrangements for grad ceremonies,” added Mayor Lee Pratt. “Our construction window on Western Financial Place is small and unfortunately falls in line with grad and the Gymnastics club’s year-end show.”

Work expected to be completed at Western Financial Place includes: the arena barrel roof replacement, video-tron installation, new boards and glass, roof beam welding and painting, along with electrical work and other improvements.

The City of Cranbrook appreciates the patience of everyone impacted by this construction project and thanks everyone for their understanding.

City of Cranbrook

Article Share