The Civic Centre in Chatham will not be getting an $18.1 million facelift.
After a lengthy discussion on Monday night, council rejected a motion to make major renovations to the 43-year-old Civic Centre and will instead opt to make emergency repairs as needed.
The renovations would have included installing a new HVAC system as well as moving Council Chambers to the first floor to address accessibility and safety concerns. According to a staff report, the building is facing several areas of deterioration and is also in need of major structural, electrical, lighting, window, flooring and plumbing repair.
However, council wasn't into the idea. Councillor Michael Bondy was one of the 11 councillors that ultimately voted it down.
Bondy said he was very much opposed to the idea, believing the money could be better spent elsewhere and not on a building that he said only around one per cent of the Chatham-Kent population actually uses.
"It would have been nice but it's completely unnecessary," he said. "We are a government, we're spending taxpayers dollars and when people are driving down roads with potholes, parks are in bad shape...that's our core business, taking care of roads and infrastructure in the city. Not building a Taj Mahal for staff."
Had it been approved, the funds would have come out of building lifecycle reserves already set aside. Despite this, many councillors thought the timing was off, given the recent decision to set aside $18.5 million for a proposed arena and multiuse facility in Chatham.
"We all approved that fancy arena, we all kind of put our eggs in that basket," said Councillor Trevor Thompson. "So politically, that's kind of the decision we made. The taxpayers and the residents can't shoulder two legacy projects in one term."
During the hour-long discussion, Infrastructure and Engineering General Manager Thomas Kelly adamantly advised council that if the HVAC system were to suddenly fail without proper planning, the results could end up costing more than the proposed $18 million solution.
"The time has come... our recommendations are really to save money for the municipality. You can look at this as a $9-18 million savings proposal as opposed to an $18 million cost," said Kelly.
According to Kelly, the HVAC system hasn't been replaced since the building was first constructed and has failed dozens of times in the past few years in addition to being severely energy inefficient.
"This is not a home. This is a business and we're trying to run a business," Kelly said. "My greatest fear is that we could have this HVAC system go down in the next month and we would be completely shut down. We would not have operations."
Because the current HVAC system is so old, Kelly said the technology has become obsolete and it would be impossible to get a new unit without getting a whole new system. Kelly estimated it would cost around $2 million for a new HVAC unit, in addition to installation costs, tearing apart ceilings, moving staff to a different location and new venting.
"It's very much of a comprehensive global solution that you've got to look at. That's why it's extremly beneficial not to do it piecemeal, to do it with solid planning in place. We'll save a lot of money by doing it. This is a cost we can't avoid, it's going to happen," said Kelly.
Despite many councillors being vocally opposed to the idea of the renovations, several councillors saw the benefit of preplanning for the inevitable repairs.
"Delay and replacement cost us more. As easy as it is to say 'I don't want to do this, it's a political hot potato, I don't want to touch it'... if we think about 10 to 15 years from now and the people who will have to sit around [council chambers] and deal with the decision we make, it's not hard to know what the right decision is. It's picking the cheapest long term decision and that's fixing it before it breaks," said Councillor Brock McGregor.
In the end, Councillor Brock McGregor, Marjorie Crew, Joe Faas, Melissa Harrigan, Karen Kirkwood-Whyte, Mary Clare Latimer and Mayor Darrin Canniff voted in favour of the motion. Councillor Bondy, Thompson, Carmen McGregor, Mark Authier, Anthony Ceccacci, Amy Finn, Aaron Hall, Jamie McGrail, Steve Pinsonneault, Doug Sulman and John Wright voted against it.
After the renovation motion was rejected, a successful motion was put on the floor to have staff prepare a report that looks at the costs of only replacing the HVAC system with no other repairs to the building. However, according to Kelly, that number may not be too far off from the figure that was presented on Monday night.
"If you're going to put in a new HVAC system, you've got all the ceiling ripped apart, you might as well put in new lighting. There's no sense putting in a new HVAC system if you're not going to repair the windows and I can't put in a new HVAC system and not move [workers] out so it's going to be very close to the [$18.1 million]," he said.
The report detailing the costs of a new HVAC system is expected back in two to three months.