Chopping block

County looks to dispose of historic town halls

The heart of the County’s villages and hamlets may look a little different if the municipality moves forward with the advice contained in a report presented to Council last Tuesday. Tasked with providing a third-party review of municipal properties in conjunction with County staff, Bruce Peever with KPMG Canada delivered the harsh reality that many municipally-owned properties and facilities are considered old and redundant, in his view. On the suggested chopping block with potential market resale values are the Picton Town Hall ($850,000), Wellington Town Hall ($700,000), Hillier Town Hall ($520,000), the former Hillier fire hall ($860,000) and the former Consecon fire hall ($185,000), and vacant land at Prinyers Cove.

The objective of the project, conducted during a pandemic, was to establish several different options for managing the municipality’s real estate portfolio, and focused on two main areas. “The first was to identify and develop opportunities that could result in greater understanding of how to make best use of the municipality’s properties to serve local residents and user groups in an accessible and equitable fashion,” explained Peever. The second was to develop an action plan that would provide cost savings and improve efficiencies. The sale and disposal of suggested properties would potentially result in an annual operational cost savings of approximately $235,000. “More importantly, the proceeds from the sale could then contribute to a buildings reserve fund between $3.2 and $4.2 million in our estimation,” Peever said.

Of the numerous properties in the municipality’s real estate portfolio, 32 were selected for consideration for review and/or disposal and were grouped under town halls/cultural centres, a community centre, administrative offices, long-term care facility, the water and wastewater treatment plants, garages and storage facilities and fire halls, landholdings, along with some other facilities. Peever indicated each property was visited, where accessibility was explored and interviews were conducted. When Councillor Stewart Bailey asked if the interviews included those people at the various town halls, the recreation committees and the management boards, Peever confirmed user groups were not consulted.

“We found the majority of the County’s facilities are underutilized and the County does not have a streamlined process for tracking the utilization of all its facilities,” said Peever. While the review was not meant to be a formal building condition assessment, building inspections revealed for the most part that buildings did not meet the required legislative requirements, such as meeting provincial accessibility requirements by 2025. While ‘divest’ was the word of choice used a lot in the report, Peever said it could mean to shed or release, something that could be accomplished through many different ways, such as partnerships, outright sale, or other various public-private partnerships. It was suggested some properties could be sold to community groups, such as the Sophiasburgh [Demorestville] Town Hall (for a nominal fee) and the Mount Tabor Playhouse (for $935,000). He also suggested properties could be sold for affordable housing for a nominal fee, such as Benson Hall and the HJ McFarland Memorial Home (once a new facility is built).

Peever painted a bleak picture of underutilized, redundant and aging buildings with maintenance issues, buildings he implied the community no longer wants or uses, something some residents may consider a far cry from reality, especially from a report conducted during a pandemic when many of these community buildings have been closed or have had restricted use for close to two years. Several councillors defended those town halls or community facilities in the wards they represent, notably Councillor Bill Roberts for the Sophiasburgh Town Hall, Councillor John Hirsch for the Milford Town Hall and Mount Tabor Playhouse, and Councillor Ernie Margetson for Hillier Town Hall, where some councillors were critical of the methodology used in the report, also noting inaccurate and outdated data supplied by County staff which Peever confirmed was from 2019. Noting two significant criteria used in the report, Peever said historical value was fully considered in their assessment. Councillor Roberts spoke to the various community groups that see the Demorestville Town Hall as “their heart and soul, their place of gathering” listing the numerous activities and events held there during non-Covid times. “They were pretty upset about this notion of selling the Demorestville Town Hall to the community because all of them remember their forebearers building and owning that town hall when it was an independent township of Sophiasburgh,“ noted Roberts. “It’s a very different town hall from the word ‘underutilized’ seems to indicate.”

Councillor Phil St-Jean raised the issue of working with outdated information, noting how the Picton Town Hall was assumed by a board of management in January 2020, something the report appears not to have taken into consideration. “They assumed the operational expenses, particularly those relating to custodial costs, which were mentioned as extremely high,” said St-Jean. Councillor Hirsch, too, pointed out several flaws in the report when it came to the management of the Milford Town Hall and the Mount Tabor Playhouse. “It is really disappointing that your slides said ‘consulting with stakeholders’, but those stakeholders didn’t include community groups and certainly didn’t include the South Marysburgh Management Committee, which with a legal arrangement with the County has responsibility for operation and maintenance of both the Milford Town Hall and the Mount Tabor Playhouse,” outlined Hirsch. “There is a lot of inaccuracy here that leads us to really wonder about the conclusion.” He also mentioned that suggestion Mount Tabor could possibly be sold to a community group for the sum of around $900,000, “a little bit astonishing”.

Councillor Kate MacNaughton said she was concerned there were large pieces missing in the information included in the report, as well as inconsistencies. She also reminded attendees no decision was being made at this meeting. “None of this would be acted upon without complete and full consultation,” she said. “The recommendations you bring forward appear to be putting the cart before the horse significantly because we are looking at a small collection of recommendations that have presumed community impact that have not actually gone out to the community.”

Looking at administrative space, Peever indicated many of the existing facilities lack appropriate administrative space, resulting in County staff being dispersed across multiple facilities. One example is the long-term leasing agreement of the Edward Building for administrative space, which costs the municipality $184,300 per year, something Peever suggests should end. “These existing facilities are also geographically spread across the County and that reduces any kind of operational efficiency that can be gained from a centralized office.“ He also noted a lack of space for the County’s fleet of vehicles and equipment.

Mayor Steve Ferguson said one of the key missing elements in the report is a lack of consultation with the public. “Particularly those who have invested time, effort and passion in the heritage properties that are included in the report.” He noted ‘cost efficiency’ and ‘savings’ are used frequently throughout the report. “These heritage structures (the town halls, Benson Hall, Mount Tabor) that have acted as gathering places for decades I believe still have major roles to play in our community’s futures,” said Ferguson. “They may have fallen onto some hard times over the years, they have fallen into disrepair, but I believe out in our community there are those who can envision how to use and repurpose many of our heritage assets to make them vital venues in our community.” The presentation (December 14 council meeting) can be viewed on the County’s YouTube channel. The full report can be found on the County’s website.