Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A fulsome-yet still very preliminary-discussion on the possibility of consolidating Greater Napanee’s municipal services into a centralized location made up a good portion of council’s first meeting of 2022.
Held on Jan. 11 through Zoom and broadcast over the town’s YouTube channel, the conversation marked a very early step in realizing Greater Napanee CAO John Pinsent’s intent to house as many of the town’s services under one roof as possible.
Nothing final came out of council’s discussion-and a final decision is still a long ways away-but the talk did wrap up with council voting to direct staff to proceed with the development of a centralized, consolidated municipal service delivery model to obtain a new administrative building.
Some potential options were outlined in a report prepared by Greater Napanee’s deputy CAO Brandt Zatterberg.
“This report is meant to initiate discussion on the feasibility of a single administration building and consolidating departments in a central location,” reads Brandt’s report. “This report is not intended to be a comprehensive review of inventory, utilization, or service offerings. The Town has contracted Optimus SBR to complete a strategic priorities study and McIntosh Perry engineering to complete a building condition assessment. Both of those reports are to be completed in 2022 and will inform the viability for the retention of or the reinvestment in the various town-owned buildings.”
Zatterberg’s report noted the town currently houses administration offices in six separate buildings throughout the municipality spread over 21,175 square feet, 2,940 of which is leased space at 41 Dundas St. W. There are currently 52 employees with permanent workplaces. The report also noted there is potentially $6.4 million in the town’s reserves that could be put towards an administration centre.
“The last thing we want is a building that transcends functionality and spends millions of dollars just on fancy façade and provides zero benefits to service,” said deputy mayor Max Kaiser. “There are plenty of examples of that within this community by other governmental agencies or non governmental agencies.”
Kaiser added he felt a lot of what they want in a new building could be achieved by expanding the current town hall.
“I see the numbers that Mr. Zatterberg has put in this report and I see that we can do a lot of things and be very responsible by liquidating some assets to fund this to the tune where we don’t have a big burden to the tax payer, or not a big undue burden and I like to keep those thoughts in mind,” said Kaiser.
Expanding on town hall, which was built in 1856 and designated a national historic site in 1984, is one option explored in the report.
Mayor Marg Isbester echoed the idea of building upon what exists at town hall.
“I’m glad that people are considering the town hall. I didn’t think it was something that people would have a taste for,” said Isbester. “When you look at what (L&A) County has done, combing new and old, there’s not a more beautiful building in the area that houses administrative like that. Quinte West went one way, Belleville is still trying to cram into their small building but doing it and expanding. I’m just glad we had the conversation because every time that we have in my almost 12 years here it’s just been heads nod and then we don’t see anymore.”
Councillor John McCormack agreed that there needed to be some movement on the project, even if it starts with just outlining some options.
“I think we need to go ahead somehow and start the ball rolling,” said McCormack. “Maybe in the staff recommendation if we agree to what the recommendation is and only remove the portion that says involving the construction of the new administration building but leave the rest of the content there, which gives staff something to start with and we’re not authorizing strictly the building of a new building, we’re going to continue to discuss.”
Other options included a new construction on Snow Road and adding onto the Strathcona Paper Centre at 16 Macpherson Dr.
Kaiser made it clear whatever option they went with he felt a need for a traditional council chambers as opposed to doing away with it in favour of virtual meetings, which have become the norm for much of the pandemic.
“We did hear a concept where maybe we don’t need to have a real council chambers,” said Kaiser. “Well I’m sorry but I think we do. When we first got back together in 2021 (for in-person meetings at the Selby Community Hall) after a long period of living in Zoom land, we all breathed a sigh of relief to be in the same room, to see each other’s faces to have those side conversations where I could turn to Bob (Norrie) and have a little chat. We can’t do that at the start of a Zoom meeting, to have one-on-one conversations or to have people visit us in a room to have deputations and presentations. Those are important.”
Councillor Ellen Johnston also felt the need to have staff working from the same space as much as possible.
“Certainly the town is better suited if we can get more people working within one building as the deputy mayor said,” said Johnson. “It’s very difficult to create a team spirit when you’re over telephone conversations and Zoom meetings.”
Kaiser also expressed his doubts that they’d be able to settle on one truly centralized location.
“We’re not going to get everybody under one roof,” said Kaiser. “That’s a reality and we have to accept that and it’s not appropriate. The arena’s not going to fit in the building and if it is the fire truck’s not going to fit and if it is the snowplows aren’t. There’s no way to put it all in one so we’ve got to question what belongs together.”
Pinsent said staff would take what was discussed at the meeting into consideration going forward.
“I think there needs to be a nod history and nod to using something that we already own,” said Pinsent. “I think by doing that you’ve already eliminated one of the options that’s there in Brandt’s report. And I think the other thing that we want to get out of this that if there is somebody else that we need to consult we would like to know that and if there is another option that we haven’t presented that you think is viable or appropriate, we’d like to see that as well.”