This is the municipality building that is outta town now .. and build for like $6million dollars. The building that the ppl outta town refused to have it.. but they still broke grown.. and had it up and running before the justice center at south end was build.
This building houses like 13 employees .. and in October 2007, the local papers reported that even though there were concerns by other town councils.. they were out voted and they even broke ground.. when there was a roomful of residents opposing the building.
The Municipality of Yarmouth will proceed with plans to build a much debated and much-talked-about new office building at the site of the former Hebron School.
Council voted 4-2 at last Wednesday night’s regular meeting to accept the lowest tender of $4.89 million from Delmar Construction, the only local firm to bid on the project. With the motion to approve was an instruction to the project architect to keep the cost of the project at or below $4.5 million before taxes. The highest of three tenders received for the project was $6 million from Pomerleau Construction.
Councillors Ken Crosby and Gilles Robichaud, the two councillors who voted against the motion, both said the project was too expensive to support and that not enough research was put into other possible project sites or options.
Robichaud suggested that rather than using the Hebron site, the new building could be located in the municipality’s industrial park. He said it would serve as good advertising to prospective businesses if they see that the municipality feels good enough about the park to locate there themselves. He also said the cost of water hook-up and architect fees should be included in the project cost.
At the end of the day, said Robichaud, due diligence was not done on the project because a full study and proper review was never completed.
For Crosby’s part, the price tag was just too high. He said he was not prepared to go beyond the initial project figure of $2.5- $3 million. He said he is yet to be convinced that a high-quality building could not be constructed for that figure.
“We’ve done no exploring and we’re sitting here with a price tag of $4.8 million,” he said. Crosby was also concerned that, while at the moment council is in a position to handle the cost of the project, there could come a time when things might get tight financially and such a cost could become a burden.
“Let’s not put all our eggs in one basket,” he said.
But as the vote shows, the opinions of Crosby and Robichaud were those of the minority and not shared by Warden Bryan Smith, Deputy Warden Brian Noble and councillors Leland Anthony and Daniel Muise. Councillor Staley Goodwin did not attend the meeting.
Noble, the most vocal supporter of the project from day one, said that while he “laboured with this decision,” he always returned to the Hebron site as the best plan.
“I want something that the residents would be proud of, that our council would be proud of,” he said. “The cost is high — I accept that . . . Any new building today is going to be expensive.”
Noble also expressed concern that if the building were to go in the industrial park, they would not be able to control what other businesses might set up around them. The deputy warden worried that something like a sawmill or cement plant could set up shop next to their office in the 75-acre business park that already includes Register.com and CSC.
Leland Anthony said that while the price of the project is higher than his self-imposed limit of $3.6- $3.8 million, he said the municipality would reap the benefits of the extra $1 million.
“The price tag is well worth the bucks that this municipality will have to spend to build it,” he said.
Anthony said the new building, which he called “a show-stopper,” is forward thinking and would be relevant well into the future.
The future also played into Smith’s decision to support the project.
“You can be progressive, regressive or stay the same,” he said, adding that with this project they are building for 20 years down the road.
Smith said that while he did consider the industrial park as a possible alternate location, the project architect talked him out of it. He said a lack of security in the park as well as the issue of forcing residents to contend with traffic there when they go to the municipal office to conduct business, doesn’t make for a good location.
When council discussed the building at their last meeting, Muise was the most uncertain about how he would vote, saying that he would wait to see the final tender before making his decision.
Though he said the price was high, he said supporting the project was the right move. He said as he trusted the people he elected to make decisions on buildings such as the new justice centre, correctional facility and school board office, residents of the municipality must trust their councillors to make this decision for them.
“People are elected to make these hard decisions,” he said. “Waiting longer (to build the new office) is going to cost more.”
Staff for the municipality said the building would be paid for over 30 years and would not have an impact on the tax rate or the municipality’s ability to undertake other capital projects on an annual basis. The future sale of the courthouse could also be used to help pay for the project.
This was the first time i saw the new municipality building yesterday. And you know what..?? I felt so sad.. with that $6million dollars, the town could have helped the school, could have building an art center.. could have build a community center – like the ones we have back home. But nope.. they only wanna take care of themselves. They do no shit for anyone of us here.. not us . .not our children.. nor our future generation. They really should take a page from the Singapore government.
14 November 2007
Ground was officially broken Wednesday at the site of the new office building for the Municipality of Yarmouth.
“I’ve always said nothing happens until you see an excavator on the job. Well, you saw a shovel on the job,” said Warden Bryan Smith moments after pitching a gold coloured shovel into the ground where students once attended Hebron School.
Smith said formal work at the site should begin the same day as the sod turning with overfill going to the long-delayed soccer field at the bottom of the hill. Although construction was once eyed to begin in October, Smith said he thinks the new building could be complete by early 2009.
The new building is one of the most controversial issues to hit the municipality in some time. Much debate and outcry has come since talk that the building could cost more than $5 million. Council approved a price tag of $4.5 million before taxes and not including architect fees.
This decision was favoured over renovating the court house building or scaling the project back to the originally proposed price of $2.5 million. The fact that much of the project’s planning happened with little to no fanfare or notice to, and inclusion of, the general public is also a sore spot for many, a matter most councillors now admits was a mistake.
Smith said that although people are still sending the municipality and The Vanguard letters opposing council’s decision to proceed with the building without taking more time to examine the matter, he hopes they will eventually come around.
“You would hope that they do,” said Smith, “but I think it’s like anything else in life — not everybody agrees with what you do. I mean, look at solid waste, for example. What percentage is not even abiding by the bylaws of what we’re supposed to do?”
When council awarded the tender for the project to Delmar Construction last month it did so with the stipulation that the price be kept at or below $4.5 million (Delmar’s bid was $4.89 million). Smith said that directive was followed and that they are also looking at the possibility of accessing funding for the high tech in-ground heating system through the province’s Department of Energy.
