The municipality of Chatham-Kent is looking at making the Civic Centre more accessible to the tune of $1.5 million.
A report will come to council Monday night that looks at moving the municipality's council chambers to the first floor. Currently located on the second floor, the chambers are used for monthly city council meetings as well as other meetings the public can attend.
The suggestion came after members of the infrastructure and engineering services team met with the Chatham-Kent Accessibility Advisory Committee in 2017 and found some serious shortcomings when it came to how accessible the room was. Some of the areas of concern include:
• Emergency exiting is very challenging for those with disabilities • The ramp in Council Chambers is too steep for normal wheelchair use • There is no accommodation for the visually or hearing impaired • There is no accommodation for those with disabilities who wish to speak at the podium • Additional lighting is required along the stairway • The public seats are too low and very difficult to get in and out of • The wheelchair seating area is undersized and difficult to manoeuvre • There is no accommodation for a Mayor or Acting Mayor with a disability • The washroom adjacent to Council Chambers is very difficult to use for those with disabilities
It also notes that in emergency situations where elevators get disabled, any person in a wheelchair would have to be manually lifted and carried downstairs to safety.
According to the report, it would cost around $758,000 to update and renovate the current council chambers to fix any concerns and make it more accessible. The report recommends that spending around double that to relocate council chambers to the ground floor would be more worthwhile instead of upgrading the current room.
"The relocation of Council Chambers to the first floor is the preferred solution as it will improve public and staff security and safety, as well as enhance accessibility, age-friendliness and public accommodations," the report stated.
If council chambers is moved to the first floor, some of the benefits of relocating the chambers would include:
• Increased security to the public and employees using a design that optimizes entrances and exits • A new first-floor entrance and atrium design that will resolve snow and ice safety concerns associated with the slope of the atrium window • The creation of first-floor barrier-free washrooms • The ability to better utilize council chambers when not in use by creating a flexible seating gallery that can be used for public events, meetings and a potential small business development centre
Funding for the project would come from the Building Lifecycle Reserves. It would also be part of the Civic Centre lifecycle upgrades happening over the next three years at an estimated cost of $16.6 million. Other areas of concern that will be addressed during the upgrades include optimized security, renewing the building's 40-year-old heating and cooling system, creating additional staff accommodations and making the Civic Centre more energy efficient.
"The renovation or relocation of Council Chambers, together with the Civic Centre lifecycle upgrades, must be managed as one project to optimize efficiencies," it stated in the report. "Therefore, a decision on the relocation of council chambers is required at this time to achieve the most cost-effective solution for all work."
Civic Centre renovations are planned to be completed one floor at a time while using the Park Ave Business Centre as a transitional location for relocated departments. During renovations, council meetings will be moved to alternative community areas such as the Capitol Theatre or the Convention Centre.
Since it was built in 1977, the only significant renovations that have occurred to the Civic Centre were in 1999 in response to amalgamation.
If the report gets accepted by council, the next step in the process will be to issue a request for proposal for professional architectural services to complete detailed design drawings for the project tendering process.