County council will hold on to the former Land Registry Office in Minden, but has shelved plans for an extensive $2.5 million redevelopment of that building and the current County offices across the street.
Director of public works, Sylvin Cloutier, presented a report to the May 28 council meeting. In it, he said work at the building at 12 Newcastle St., (the former Land Registry Office) would have cost nearly $1.3 million: including moving the existing council chamber at 11 Newcastle St. across the road; another $165,000-plus for exterior work; and $100,000 for a lift. He noted a big chunk of that would be for accessibility requirements.
He estimated another $1.145 million for the current County office building, with $600,000 being for accessibility upgrades.
Coun. Murray Fearrey said he could not justify spending the $2.5 million to taxpayers. He felt a new council chamber was not necessary, as it would only be used for a limited number of meetings every month.
“In these times, I just cannot accept spending $2.5 million on both,” he said in asking to defer the project. However, he did back doing the government-mandated accessibility upgrades at the current office, at the $600,000. Fearrey added with council committing to furthering the service delivery review, now was not the time. “This project needs a lot of consideration.”
Coun. Walt McKechnie was firm in his opinion that the County sell the Land Registry Office, making it available for future affordable housing; “some real nice apartments in there, which is what’s really needed,” while upgrading the existing office.
Coun. Jennifer Dailloux didn’t want to surplus the building. “We will be expanding. It would be shooting ourselves in the foot to get rid of a building during a trend of continuous expansion.”
Coun. Cec Ryall asked about the space needs of County staff. Dyke said they have capacity issues. He said for now, they could get by, but “from a growth, flexibility standpoint, that doesn’t exist in its current form.”
Deputy warden Liz Danielsen said she is always concerned about deferring projects, as, “nothing gets cheaper.” She suggested an RFP that could break down work and costs. “At least we have the information. If we decide not to go ahead, so be it.” She said they may ultimately run out of space and it will cost more to redevelop at that time. She also asked about other sources of funding. Dyke said they are investigating other money possibilities.
The prospect of sharing a council chamber with Minden Hills was raised.
Dyke felt council was proposing “forget about doing work at 12 Newcastle St. for now, proceed with renovations at the existing County office, and possibly share council chambers with Minden Hills.”
His second option was leaving the former Land Registry Office alone; doing all upgrades at 11 Newcastle St., including modernizing the existing council chamber space, and dealing with growth as it happens.
He said both could be done within existing budgets.
By recorded vote, council elected for the first option; the complete renovation at 11 Newcastle St. and discussions with Minden Hills about a shared council chamber. Only McKechnie voted against.
