Huntsville councillors were not in the mood to retain a project management consultant at an estimated cost of up to $340,000 to help the municipality establish a $6M to $8M Town Hall renovation plan.
“As directed by council, staff were to come back with a building asset management plan for the Town Hall building. Through this plan, staff were asked to incorporate the architectural concept plans with council [chambers] moving or being relocated to the staffing area of the third floor, the structural requirements of the engineer report, and the sustainability elements to be incorporated,” said Nagy. “Knowing that this project workload would lead to requiring more technical documents and a lead consultant, staff felt it appropriate to engage the assistance of JCI (Johnson Control International) to bring forward a proposal for the management plan.”
The renovation of Town Hall includes the exterior front stairs, roof replacement and structure, HVAC and building automation system replacement, kitchen and furnace replacement, and expansion or relocation of the council chambers as well as the reconfiguration of municipal offices.
Nagy said the consultant cited a potential $60,000 grant through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) that, if the Town is successful in securing, can be used to offset a portion of the cost. He said the consultant had estimated the project cost would range from $6-8 million.
According to Nagy’s report, if the municipality retained the consultant, on completion of the agreement, the consultant would deliver:
- Architectural Design Drawings and Floor Plans, along with construction documents, which will provide full details that are suitable for bidding and include details on finishes, built-in millwork, installation details and quality levels.
- Mechanical, electrical, and structural drawings are needed to provide sufficient details to finalize the project’s construction cost and obtain building permits.
- HAZMAT Report with findings and recommendations provided by the Environmental Consultant. A preliminary schedule for implementation/construction of the project.
- The total cost of the project as well as phased costing (Estimated project cost is projected to be in the range of $6 million to $8 million).
“There is no way I’m going to support this motion or the spend of $340,000,” said Councillor Cory Clarke. “I’m not going to support further conversations about renovating Town Hall. In this economic climate, it’s not the right time to be doing the project, and it’s not the right time to take on a large amount of debt that we have to service to complete a large-scale renovation like what is proposed here. So I’m saying for me that status quo is the right choice here with continuing the building maintenance that needs to be done and continuing repairs that need done….” said Clarke, adding that he has no issue with fixing and repairing existing infrastructure but said he would not support this project.
Councillor Stone agreed. He said that if council were moving forward with the $6M to $8M renovation project, hiring a project manager would make sense, but he is not inclined to support all of the suggested upgrades. “It’s not feasible, in my opinion, so I’m afraid I can’t go forward with this.”
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock agreed that this is not the time to be looking at spending those kinds of funds. “It’s just not where I’m at at the moment.” She also said she’d like to see energy efficiency upgrades in any work done and questioned whether the municipality could apply for funding grants on its own.
Councillor Helena Renwick also said she did not think this was the time to spend that kind of money and spoke about prioritizing the most important building requirements.
Councillor Monty Clouthier said the project will have to be done at some point in time but pointed to the last tax increase. “I think for now we just have to bite the bullet and do our repairs, and I know staff might not be happy with the conditions they work in, but we’re going to have to make do, and we can do the best we can with what we have,” he said, adding that there are other projects that need to be done as well. He said he also supports going ahead and doing the repairs that are “desperately needed and get them done as soon as we can.”
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Of course town council is saying no to this project for now because they just imposed the highest tax increase in Huntsville history. Let’s not forget, this is the administration that made a mockery of the budgetary system, in the first nine months of their tenure, by spending more than 1 million dollars of taxpayers money, that wasn’t included in the 2023 budget. Leading former mayor Hugh Mackenzie to lable them “Spendthrifts” in his article “Speak Up”.
When you have town councillors who don’t answer questions from concerned citizens and who snicker during deputations and a mayor whose answers are unintelligible, you know they don’t have our best interests at heart.
Well, at least this idea is a whole lot less than the proposal announced on April 1st!
8million dollars would build a lot of accomadations for the homeless in Muskoka instead of people living in the bush.
REALLY– with a 10% plus tax increase surely these renovations are poorly timed
Our amazing G8 gift, The ‘Waterloo centre’, overlooking a small lake , was ‘given away’ at $12 million below value we’re told.
Our suggestions fell on deaf ears. A magnificent opportunity wasted to ‘home’ City Hall offices, a huge Council Chamber & all the offices & spaces required into the future.
It had income possibilities also, as a Special Events location as there is ample parking.
– and now you want to spend millions on Consultants & remedial work on the crumbling, too small City Hall?
‘Foresight’ – it’s a good thing.
Is this why our taxes went up so much? Is this not something that could wait a year? Maybe when town folk can afford food and lodging? What a waste of millions of dollars. I also heard that we are down to one garbage bag a week instead of two. So more money and less service? I hope this is not true.