Halls offered option to renovate

Clearview Township officials have been making the rounds, offering community halls an option to proceed with accessibility renovations saying the township would cover 75 per cent of the total costs, if the individual hall boards would commit to paying the balance.
Terry Vachon, Clearview’s General Manager of Parks, Culture and Recreation, has called special meetings for each of the six community halls that require renovations to bring them into compliance with standards set out in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). The legislation called on corporations with more than 50 employees to make public spaces accessible by 2016, with the goal of having a fully accessible province by 2025.
Duntroon Hall board members were the first to hear their tailor-made options, at a presentation on March 16.
“This has been going on for a while,” said Vachon. “Anywhere from six to 10 years we have been aware of these renovations that are required and now’s the time to hopefully get something done.”
Councillors spent about nine hours in closed session during two in-camera meetings hashing out their preferred options to take to each of the halls.
In 2019, council asked its engineering consultant RJ Burnside to update earlier hall renovation estimates revealing that the costs for six of Clearview’s community halls – Avening, Sunnidale Corners, Nottawa, Duntroon, Brentwood and Dunedin – had gone up significantly from $710,000, to $4,150,000. (The Station on the Green was omitted from the review because it meets AODA requirements.)
By the end of 2021, the township will have earmarked $1.5 million for hall renovations.
“If there was a time to take a loan to pay for some renovations, now may be a good time,” said Vachon referring to the current low interest rates available.
“It’s worth noting, the longer we wait the more the price goes up,” said Vachon.
Duntroon Hall was presented two options. One option is to renovate to meet the AODA requirements set out in the Building Code at a cost of $920,000, with the board being expected to contribute $230,000.
Its other option is to demolish the building and build something new at a cost of $1.7 million for a 7,000-square-foot building, with the board being expected to contribute $425,000.
On March 18, Avening Community Centre was presented the options of either going with the 75-25 per cent renovation option at a cost of $1,270,000, with the board being expected to contribute $317,500, or purchase the building for $1 and operate as a separate entity.
On March 19, Sunnidale Corners Community Hall was presented the same options including the purchase of the building to go it on their own, or to proceed with a $728,000 renovation, which would include the board’s commitment to contribute $182,000.
On March 24, Brentwood Hall was offered three options: purchase the building for $1; proceed with an AODA renovation estimated to cost $262,000, with the board being expected to contribute $66,500; or proceed with a renovation that goes above and beyond AODA, taking into account the township’s own FADS document, at a cost of $604,000, with the board being expected to contribute $151,000.
Board members opted to take some time to discuss the options presented offline. Avening Hall board members voiced support for proceeding with the renovation, noting that further discussion and planning is needed, declining the option to purchase the building.
Vachon said all of the halls’ kitchens do not meet fire code standards so a cost of $20,000 has been built into the construction cost of each hall. He also noted that staff is anticipating five per cent inflation per year to those totals, and acknowledge there are some unknowns due to the pandemic, the cost of building materials, and the current demand on contractors.
The Dunedin presentation is on March 30 and the Nottawa presentation is on March 31.
At the end of the process, Vachon said he will be taking all the input back to council for a final decision.
“Council will then consider the reports of all six boards and how we will address each one of the asks and needs for the community and keep in mind the amount of debt load that the community can handle, so we have to be respectful of that and respectful of taxpayers,” Mayor Doug Measures, who participated in all the meetings, told the Avening board. “This is very helpful and I think it will set the path forward for what the Avening Hall will look like in the next 30 years or so and that’s a really positive thing that you guys are doing.”
With no sign of grants on the horizon, Sunnidale Corners Community Centre chair Bill Keith expressed his frustration at the lack of funding from the province to make public spaces AODA compliant.
“I don’t think that volunteers who give of their time like to be told what has to happen if there’s not going to be some definite committed support from that level of government,” said Keith. “That’s fine if you want to tell us that by 2025. You have to have elevators and you have to have lifts, that’s great, then you better be able to back it up and provide the funding if we can’t.”