One step forward

Councillors propose new plan for Wellington’s corner store

At the last council meeting of 2019, councillors Ernie Margetson and Mike Harper put forth a proposal for the County to divest itself of the building that sits on the corner of Main and Wharf Streets in Wellington. Since 2011, County Works officials have worried about the two structures that straddle the waterway, buildings for which they held no legal easement by which to fix or maintain potential creek issues. An early plan to reroute the creek was put on the shelf after cost estimates rose to nearly $2 million. They had to look at other options.

In 2015, the County purchased the two properties—a convenience store and a former pizza shop—for $644,000. Various ideas were floated, but the notion of levelling the convenience store and leaving a blank space for parking or greenspace was soundly rejected by residents and businesses in this village.

In June of 2018, the County’s then Director of Community Development and Strategic Initiatives, Neil Carbone, presented three options to a packed house at the Highline Hall. The original plan of running Lane Creek down Wharf Street, crossing the Drake Devonshire property and spilling back into the waterway was still in the mix, with a price tag $1.9 million. Demolishing the buildings and creating a greenspace and parking lot would cost roughly $1.4 million. The preferred option of lifting the Convenience Store, shifting it north and west by a metre, and putting it back down on a new foundation, and re-routing the creek around exterior of the store would cost taxpayers $1 million. In August of 2018, council passed a motion, pushing the preferred option forward. The project was slated to begin in May of 2019, but the date slipped by, and no work was completed. To date, $830,000 has been spent on the building, with a remaining budget of $1,318,953.

Margetson and Harper, along with Peter Moyer, Director of Development Services, Joe Angelo, Project Manager; and Todd Davis, Director of Community Development and Strategic Initiatives, as well as legal counsel from Templeman Menninga LLP, have put together a work team to move the stagnant project forward.

The team has come to the conclusion that seeking a private interest in the property and buildings is a strategy to divest council of the real estate and to minimize expenditures and risk. “We’ve met with our legal counsel and the recommendation of that work team is to proceed with either an expression or interest of request for proposals that would seek prospective parties to purchase the property and buildings with conditions specific to the requirements of the municipality,” said Margetson. With this new direction, also comes a budgetary reduction of over $1.3 million. “We will come back to council with what we consider to be the conditions of divestiture. We are looking at this as a reduction of our financial commitment to this project, and also divestiture of an asset that we don’t need,” said Margetson.

Harper believed that the slow state of the project might have been a good thing, as it has given time for reflection. “Form should follow function. And the function here is what’s going to be the use of that building,” said Harper. “Ultimately someone is going to own the building and it’s not going to be the County. It’s not going to be the taxpayers. We need to find somebody that has a vision for it that is affordable, that fits with the community and helps us get out of this liability.” Harper also worries that if the County moves forward with the work, it narrows the window of potential buyers. “The idea is let’s not go and spend $1.3 million only to learn that by what we did—by moving the creek and putting the foundation in a particular spot— is of no interest to anyone,” he said.

The proposed plan received the support of council. Mayor Steve Ferguson commended the team for their work “I want to congratulate you guys on doing this. It was done very quickly, very efficiently and I think it is a step in the right direction,” said Ferguson.

The work team hopes to have a formal plan put together this February, after budget deliberations are completed. In the meantime, Councillor Harper is holding a public open house on Thursday, January 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Wellington Town Hall. Topics of discussion will include a debrief on the clear garbage bag pilot project, volunteerism in Wellington, Town Hall scheduling and operation, and of course, the future of Wellington’s corner store. All are welcome.