Flooding forces early closure of children’s museum

SASKATOON For the Children’s Discovery Museum on the Saskatchewan, the unexpected early closure of its longtime home in Saskatoon’s Market Mall is bittersweet, but an opportunity.

Earlier this month, flooding at Market Mall after a water-main break affected some of the storefronts in the building, including the existing Children’s Discovery Museum location.

Water seeped into the layers of walls and into the flooring, causing damage. Its doors in the mall will remain closed.

Market Mall’s property manager, Betty Anne Fisher, declined to comment about the flooding in the building or its cause.

With the museum set to open in its new home at the former Mendel Art Gallery next spring, staff will focus on showcasing the museum’s offerings in the community.

Executive director Amanda Mcreynolds Doran said staff already knew there would be a period between the planned closure of the Market Mall location in December and opening day of the new location in 2019, and there were plans for that transitional period.

“It’s disappointing because it is a sad ending to a place that we had built a lot of happy memories. We’ve helped a lot of children, we’ve had a lot of school visits there. There were happy birthday celebrations there,” she said.

“We’re very sad about the way in which we had to close, that we couldn’t keep that resource open for families, at least in the first half of this winter.”

Construction on the new museum is expected to be complete in January.