Decision time looms on community halls
With fire and electrical safety reports now in hand for Clearview Township’s six community halls (excluding the seventh, the Station on the Green), Mayor Ken Ferguson has invited hall board members and the public to a special meeting of Council on Monday, March 18 to once again discuss the future of the six buildings.
A similar meeting was held last fall, when a report by Township engineering firm R.J. Burnside & Associates revealed it would cost in the neighbourhood of $1 million to bring the halls in Avening, Dunedin, Duntroon, Nottawa, Sunnidale Corners and Brentwood up to the province’s accessibility standards. At that time, Council requested fire and electrical safety reports be done on the buildings as well before any decisions are made on upgrades.
Township Transportation and Recreation General Manager Steve Sage confirmed to the Echo that those reports have now been received, and that there are “significant orders on both types of inspections.” The lists vary in length for each hall, with some needing basic improvements like new fire alarms and smoke extinguishers, and some needing more drastic work. Cost analysis has yet to be done, said Sage, but he did confirm that the Avening Hall had the longest list of required improvements.
There are deadlines associated with both reports, but Sage was hesitant to talk about the implications. “There are political decisions that need to be made,” he said.
The challenge facing Council is to decide whether fulfilling the fire and electrical requirements is contingent on also doing the work outlined in the Burnside report, and whether all of the halls should be improved or if one or more should be closed.
To that end, Sage said the meeting on March 18 would be important for the purpose of gauging the vision and commitment of each of the hall boards. “We want to know how they feel about the issues,” he said.
The fire and safety reports were to be given to members of Council and the hall board chairs on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Details of the reports will be made public after those people are in receipt of the information.
