Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Talks between the Town of Greater Napanee and Family and Children Services of FLA involving the potential sale of 99 Advance Ave. continue to progress.
The town has expressed interest in buying the building with the intent of housing all their municipal services under one roof. Speaking at the May 10 council meeting, Greater Napanee CAO John Pinsent requested council approve an expenditure of $3,295 to complete an inspection of the building should the two sides agree to a sale.
“We’re not sure when we will enter into negotiations for that building,” Pinsent told council. “I know staff has a mandate in terms of price, I just want to make sure if we’re between council meetings that we could quickly execute an inspection of that building before we brought anything back to council.”
Council unanimously agreed to the request. The town has selected McIntosh Perry to conduct the inspection should they reach that stage.
Family and Children Services of Frontenac Lennox and Addington approached the town about a possible sale of the building in late winter after a report by the CAO indicted the town was seeking to centralize its services into one office space. Family and Children Services have indicated they have had excess office space for a few years now with no indication they intend to fill it and are looking to divest itself of physical infrastructure.
-Town council has agreed to support Lennox and Addington County’s notion of investigating the idea of hosting a ‘Trunk or Treat’ Halloween event this coming October.
Proposed by the county’s Joint Accessibility Advisory Committee, the event would see cars gather in a sectioned off parking lot to allow kids a safe area to trick-or-treat. Each car would have treats for the kids.
Mayor Marg Isbester supported the idea, noting it would be for parents who wanted a safe area to trick-or-treat. Traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating would still take place on Oct. 31.
“I’m very afraid of (kids) stepping backwards off that porch,” Isbester said of the kids she gets to her home, noting she lives on a busy street and sports a tall porch. “I could see that you would get people that live in apartment houses that might get together, live in seniors’ buildings or just people that live out in the country that don’t get anybody that might just decide if we had it at the SPC or if we had it at Market Square that you would see they’d decorate their cars and it would be a safe place, no cars, just pedestrians. It’ll never replace Halloween.”
It would also be more inclusive to those with accessibility concerns.
Council voted to explore possible options and locations for the event.