By God, they’re going to do something about the municipal garage, they’re just not quite sure what. And they’re going to spend money on the place, but they’re not quite sure how much. The place will exist in one form or another, just in what form, and for how long?
All of this formed the core of a discussion involving the long-dilapidated municipal garage, a structure in the midst of its slow, methodical march towards collapse and oblivion, hopefully with no town staff inside when it falls down around them.
Director of Infrastructure, Public Works, and Engineering — IPWE— Andrea Bishop presented Council with options regarding the garage, all of it in a flat-line tone that accurately reflected a building that has flat-lined itself, or of a director that has lost some measure of spark after having the “acting” removed from her job title.
Wonderful, nostalgic things about the place, its location, and the terrific supporting out-buildings were offered, most notably by Councillor Jason Legris, who no doubt was feeling the tug of an emotional connection brought about by his working with the town as either a co-op or summer student many years ago. I get it completely, because I was once a flagman on a road construction site and I still get all misty-eyed every time I pass by one of my brothers and sisters along the road, although they don’t wave anymore because they’ve lost the pride.
And as much as the old garage tugs at the councillor’s heart-strings, there’s an inescapable fact that the whole place could be pushed down into a heap of dust and great memories by a bulldozer.
So, the primary question regarding the garage is whether we spend money to keep it standing and eke out maybe a decade or two of continued use, or do we knock it down and erect something entirely more practical, efficient, purpose-built, and structurally sound?
The attractiveness of that first option its that it costs less money and pushes the decision down the road to another Council of the future, who I’m sure will be absolutely delighted at having this thing foisted upon them by some folks who once sat in that same chamber a decade earlier. They’ll no doubt look for the photo of the 2025 Council on the wall and practice some of their out-door words, and perhaps practice some amateur voodoo.
One of the options articulated by Bishop involved Council directing staff to undertake design planning for a new municipal garage. Part of this option included a mention of the fact that design work has already been done, sometime in the past and in response to a direction from a previous council. That design work, if I’m reading the document correctly, involved plans for a new fire station and administration building. I don’t know about any new fire station, and I have to admit that the current one, while quaint and having a certain small-town charm, looks to be something that could collapse under its own weight even before the garage does, leaving us with a unique “Catch The Ace” type opportunity. We we can have a fundraising pool to correctly select the date for such a thing to happen, the proceeds going towards any number of debt-ridden enterprises currently in operation here in River City. Again, it’s our most profound hope we don’t lose any municipal workers or firefighters in the interests of town fundraising efforts.
As to the “admin space” — they love their insider terms and words — I’d have to say that it would take a certain amount of political courage to sink more cash into the building of a new administrative building when they just had the very recent experience of going over-budget on the most recent Town Hall renovation. When I say over-budget, I mean well over $1 million over-budget. Hell, the furniture itself cost over twice as much as the original overall project was supposed to cost. That’s going to be a bit of a tough sell, I think, although we can only hope that if Council were to proceed with the building of a new admin-space, that at least they’d cart the existing furniture along to the new location. Or is this an additional admin-space, aside from the existing Town Hall? And — gasp — a place requiring new furniture?
All I can say to the former councillor who sold the previous council their $400,000 worth of chairs is that she should stay tuned, there may be another windfall coming her way. And this time it won’t look so bad, since she won’t actually be on Council this time, which would make for a nice change in optics.
After some terrific back-and-forth, Council decided to direct staff to proceed with “Immediate Repairs” with a desire to extend the “life” of the existing building for another ten years, which isn’t a long time to begin with, and strikes me as not the greatest value for the money being spent to extend the life of the building. It’s sort of like purchasing $1,400 in new tires for your car, and then a couple of months later you sell the car or trade it in, getting absolutely no value for that investment. Unless, of course, the fixes under discussion have a ten-year shelf-life. Because, in the future, if a new building is to be built, there goes your new roof and any other new stuff installed or re-worked as a result of this short-term solution, ten years being regarded by me as a short-term affair.
I know that no decision made while wearing financial handcuffs is an easy one, but there’s always going to be a chance that we’re throwing good money after bad if our goal is to simply punt a problem down the road. And ten years isn’t much of a punt if you ask me.
We may have to work on our kicking game.
In the meantime, let’s hope that no big bad wolves show up to start huffing and puffing.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 