At the April 29 General Committee meeting, municipal staff were given authorization to engage a consultant related to the feasibility of constructing a new operations centre at 169 Madill Church Road.
Council approved up to $50,000 to be funded from the roads capital reserve for studies and plans related to site servicing requirements, as well as fire suppression and soil sustainability for the construction of an estimated 20,000 sq. ft building.
“The Town of Huntsville owns a large public works yard and buildings located at 169 Madill Church Road in Huntsville. The purpose of this facility is to provide an operations centre for the Town’s Operations Division which includes Roads, Parks, Cemeteries and Fleet Maintenance. The site provides storage for heavy equipment, operations vehicles, parks equipment, vehicles, salt, sand, and materials such as culverts, couplers, and aggregates. The facility also includes office space and acts as a hub for all departments in the Operations division. The property is approx. 100 acres in size, with approx. 20 acres of cleared land and approx. 80 acres of forested land with frontage on Madill Church Road and potential for access through Cearsar’s Lane. The District also owns a portion of the property at Madill and has functioning lagoons in that location,” states the report from staff.
In 2024, Tulloch Engineering, which had been engaged to conduct a building design and condition assessment in 2022, presented a new building design and estimated the cost at approximately $14 M.
Frank Palmay of Tulloch Engineering told the Town’s General Committee on July 24, 2024, that “the existing facility has insufficient space to house all staff. Currently, there are shared offices. All services are not under one roof, and the garage is too small to accommodate the current number of vehicles.”
He said based on 2021/2022 standards, the building requires approximately $5 million in upgrades. He broke that sum down into $1.5 million in repairs, $0.5 million in AODA upgrades, and $3 million to address the lack of space.
He also gave the council the cost of constructing a new building.
“Through the needs analysis, through interviews with staff and a review of the growth estimate for the Town, it was determined that the new facility should be designed to include 17 offices with 21 workstations, locker rooms, a board room, a training room, a large storage room for the mechanics, a wash bay, a mechanics bay and ten double bays to accommodate all of the current and future vehicles,” said Palmay. “The estimated project cost can be broken down for the office, approximately $3 million in construction; the garage, $7 million with one million in design fees and one million dollars in contingency, for a total budget of $12 million.”
You can find that story by clicking HERE.
According to the latest public report related to a new operations centre from staff, in “2024, Accent Building Sciences Inc. (ABSI) was engaged to conduct building condition assessments (BCA Assessment) and insurance appraisals for municipal buildings, which included the existing Operations Centre. The facility has been assessed as being in poor condition which marks a deterioration from the condition noted in 2022.”
The report notes that the cost of the consultant will come out of the Roads Capital Reserve, expected to contain an estimated $6,588,000 by the end of 2026, “and is to be used for the rehabilitation of all roads, bridges, sidewalks, and stormwater systems.”
“Operations facility replacement has been highlighted over the years however the building replacement was never contemplated in the calculation of the annual funding requirements for roads,” adds the report.
“It is important to note that large facility projects will require debenture financing, with any annual principal or interest payments being included in future budgets.”
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Wouldn’t it make sense to partner with the district to move the waste transfer site from Stisted to here. Since Stisted is no longer an active dump, think how much gas and time could be saved by using this location which will be much more convenient, and may even help reduce the problem of roadside dumping.
Nice piece of property. I wish they would park their pickups out there instead of in the town parking lot. There is little enough parking in town. The lot on High St is a main parking area that now has Charging stations taking up 6 or so spots, another 6 town pickups. Add to that the personal vehicles of the drivers of the pickups. If someone is using the pickup why not take the short drive out to Madill to get the truck.
One of my pet peeve’s
RRnR.
Rather than have bays to park vehicles in they can be parked outside with plug ins available for the vehicles that need them. Workers can clean snow off while they do the mandated circle checks. Check out the Fowler yards where they park plow trucks. No bays, just plug ins. Tax dollars folks!