Hall for all

Private and public interested in future of 2 Ross Street

Last night, after the Times went to print, Prince Edward County council held a special meeting that would determine the next steps in the future of Picton’s former firehall.

The building at 2 Ross Street has been a part of the community for 150 years, its upstairs serving as a town hall, opera stage and social gathering place for nearly its entire existence. The downstairs had long been used as offices for Picton’s fire department. But when the County built a new firehall at a more practical location east of Picton’s downtown, the building’s future became uncertain.

When the fire department moved their headquarters, Mayor Robert Quaiff suggested 2 Ross Street could be declared surplus and sold to pay for the new building. The community responded first with concern, then with ideas. In the spring, local farmer Rebecca Sweetman presented a proposal to turn the downstairs of the hall into a municipal farmers’ market, not unlike the municipal markets in Belleville and Trenton.

Then, in July, staff brought a proposal to council to declare the building surplus and prepare a request for proposals, allowing both private and public organizations to pitch their idea for the space.

Users of the hall were concerned. The building is not the only municipally-owned gathering space in Picton, but it is a significant one. In the centre of the County’s most populous town, the hall is accessible now both physically and financially. New ownership at 289 Picton Main Street means the future of a perceived community space is in question. Other spaces were suggested by the County’s community development department, but all are more expensive, smaller or inappropriate for secular groups.

So Picton councillor Lenny Epstein held a meeting in the town hall to discuss its future. The packed room featured members of a variety of groups that regularly use the hall and residents from around the County. Epstein was the only councillor in attendance.

From this meeting, a committee grew, steered by some of its attendees. They worked to develop a deputation to council, arguing the case for keeping the building in public hands.

Then, last Friday, Royal Hotel owner Greg Sorbara submitted a letter to council, expressing his interest in the building. Currently on vacation in Massachusetts, he was unable to attend the meeting in person.

“As the owners and developers of The Royal, we obviously have a very keen interest in what happens to the Fire Hall,” Sorbara wrote. He discusssed the patio planned for the back of the Royal, overlooking Market Lane and steps from the old firehall. “If you place yourself in this rear part of our project, you see immediately that the Fire Hall becomes an important component of the overall plan for us and the County’s planning for this area of Picton.”

Sorbara, whose work on the Royal has stretched and become more costly as the once derelict structure began to buckle this summer, says maintaining a heritage property is a costly proposition, best undertaken by an entity with the money to spend on it rather than a stretched-thin municipality.

“In my view… the better option would be a kind of public-private partnership where the burden of maintaining the building would no longer fall on the County, but the private sector owner would be bound by provisions that would ensure continued public use.”

Sorbara does not have a use in mind for the structure, but wanted to throw his hat in the ring as discussions began.

“It’s [the County’s] building, and they should do what they think best,” says Sorbara. He adds that his proposal would not leave the building the same as it is, neither in the way it looks or the way it’s used. That, he says, doesn’t make financial sense.

“One thing is for sure. We’re not going to buy the building and then say, okay, you guys can do whatever you want with it. That just wouldn’t make any sense. My own view was that I should buy the building and enter into contractual responsibility to provide for the community,” he clarifies. “We would undertake to maintain the building at a certain standard… You make it more attractive to community groups, but you also make it a space where events that the hotel is doing, weddings, for example, could take place up there.”

Leslie Smail-Persaud, one of the residents leading discussions about keeping the town hall in the community, says the desire of user groups is to keep the hall public, run by a volunteer management board in a fashion similar to that of Mount Tabor in Milford. There, the South Marysburgh recreation committee took over the management and financial responsibility of the building in partnership with the County.

“Those are things that we want to explore. We’re asking council, ideally, to respect the wishes of the family that originally donated the building, to keep it within the community, and that the group have the opportunity to discuss a potential farmers’ market there,” says Smail-Persaud. “What we’re asking for is time to be able to coordinate and figure out who all the interested stakeholders are and what would be best.”

In the Facebook group Save Picton Town Hall, Councillor Epstein expressed an interest in working with Sorbara, if he is interested in a true partnership, in creating a situation that will work for everyone.

“I hope this conversation will remain positive and that we can convince some of the doubters as to why this publicly owned space is crucial and why privatization of this active and important town hall is the wrong way forward,” Epstein wrote. “I will urge [Sorbara] to explore with us alternative ways to participate. Rather than through straight up ownership, there are, doubtless, other ways to satisfy his benevolence/aspirations and which don’t preclude growth/ development opportunities in the future(sic).”