Council members for the Municipality of South Bruce took comments from the public Tuesday regarding the future of the Teeswater Town Hall.
Recreation and Facilities Manager Laura Christen says the building needs almost $175,000 to upgrade the structure and bring it up to code.
Council intends to seek legacy funds that may be available for older buildings, as the multi-purpose facility was built in 1868.
Council will receive a recommendation on the future of the 149-year-old Teeswater Town Hall at their next regular meeting on April 25.
Bookings at the Teeswater Town Hall are to cease on June 1 of this year as council determines community support for the project.
South Bruce Fire Chief Chuck Lobsinger says the facility is no longer in a situation where only a portion of recommended upgrades can save it, and says he's not accepting anything except to fix all fire code violations, or close it. He also says council ignored prior recommendations that might have saved the facility from it's current predicament, citing the purchase of a fridge a few years ago instead of upgrades to fire safety equipment.
The Teeswater Town Hall is the largest building in the Municipality of South Bruce without fire protection, according to Lobsinger, and is the only public assembly building that is not up to code.
Despite hearing that fire code violations had been present since at least 2015, South Bruce council says they have not even discussed how funds will be allocated to a project to upgrade the building, drawing the ire of several members of the crowd.
Mayor Robert Buckle says it's unfair to rush council into making a decision, and they'll have to work hard in order to find enough money to give the project a good start.
Despite the message, residents criticized council for not putting any public money in reserve for a problem they would have to deal with eventually. Those at the meeting were vocal about the fact that members of council did not know if any grants have been applied for since 2015.