Washrooms in the building formerly owned by the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce will not be available to the public for about another month. The Town will make porta potties available for patrons in the interim, at least for the month of June.
Huntsville CAO Denise Corry said she’s been working on a lease agreement with Scott Morrison of Coldwell Banker, which recently purchased the building. Once the agreement is finalized it will be brought to Council for final approval.
The hold up
“Since they (Coldwell Banker) are the lessor of the property they typically would provide the lessee with the lease agreement and I know that Scott had some delays on his end that were beyond his control and he wasn’t able to get the lease to me in time for the Council agenda,” explained Corry, referring to the May 24 Council meeting.
She said the closing of the sale of the Chamber building to Coldwell Banker is today, May 31, which made it difficult to get a lease agreement for the washrooms in place for June 1.
The lease
“We have full intentions on bringing the lease forward,” she said, hoping to bring it to Council at its June 27 meeting. In terms of what will be contained in the agreement, Corry said based on her discussions with Morrison the use of the facilities will be the same as before when the Chamber owned the building. However, parking will not be part of the deal. In terms of price, the Town is proposing a set amount of $700 per month, which will be inclusive of any utility costs as the building does not have separate meters. Maintenance and supplies will be provided by the Town.
A bit of the history
The Town entered into a rather complicated agreement with the Chamber in 2007. It spent roughly $120,000 to build the washrooms and gave ownership of the washrooms to the Chamber in exchange for their use over a 20 year period. According to Corry, when all factors are taken into consideration, the previous agreement cost the Town roughly $500/month to provide the washrooms for public use. She said under the previous agreement with the Chamber, which expires today, there were also provisions for the Town to reimburse the Chamber for additional taxes levied for the washrooms and parking lot as well as utility costs. “That just proved to be a bit of a challenge when trying to figure out what the actual amount was, so Scott (Morrison) and I agreed that a monthly fee, everything inclusive, was the easiest way to do it.”
Hours of operation to be discussed
Corry said the hours of operation will remain the same as previous years. “My guess is there may be some discussion at Council that talks about the extension of those hours and if that’s the case then we’ll just have to determine if there are in fact costs associated with that. My guess is that will be a topic of conversation for the 27th.”
The lease agreement will be in place for one year, which will buy the municipality some time while it explores further options for the provision of public washrooms at River Mill Park.
Photo from Huntsville Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce
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Meanwhile, two pota-potties (one of them wheelchair accessible) are in place in River Mill Parking lot….
At least the people parking can now “go” whilst waiting for a parking space to open up…which will be even more fun now that there are now two fewer spaces in which to park….best free entertainment in town…watching the parking vultures circling ’round and ’round!