By Cecilia Nasmith/Northumberland 89.7 FM/Today’s Northumberland
The future of the Alnwick-Haldimand Township municipal building in Grafton was discussed at length at council’s Tuesday meeting.
In October, it was announced that council meetings, formerly held on its second floor, would now take place at the Centreton Community Centre amid talk of health and safety concerns. The municipal offices on the ground floor remain there for now.
The report on which the decision was based cited “multiple structural and non-structural deficiencies, some of which appear critical.”
Following lengthy debate, the motion that passed in a recorded vote (with only Deputy Mayor Joan Stover opposed) was for council to direct staff to issue an RFQ for an engineering structural assessment of the municipal building.
The report before council from Chief Administrative Officer Dave Dawson had recommended two options – that council direct staff to an issue an RFP for a restoration project for the building or that council direct staff to issue an RFP for a needs assessment for a municipal office building.
Councillor Greg Booth pointed out that council had previously passed two motions in connection with the building – on Sept. 10 to issue an RFP for a qualified company to do an engineering assessment and on Oct. 10 requesting a detailed engineer’s report.
Neither had been acted upon.
Mayor John Logel admitted to hearing expressions of concern from the town’s insurers.
What the next step should be was the subject of extended debate. Deputy Mayor Stover made a motion for the second option – an RFP for a needs assessment – but in a recorded vote, only she and Councillor Mike Ainsworth supported it.
Logel floated the idea of an RFQ for an engineering structural assessment that had come up at their Feb. 18 committee-of-the-whole meeting. Chief Administrative Officer Dave Dawson clarified that this amounts to a quote on which to base the selection of an invasive and intrusive structural assessment, and not the assessment itself.
