PUSLINCH — Council has to make a decision on what to do about its aging township buildings, including the municipal building and operations centre.
The Puslinch building, containing municipal operations including a township hall, erected in 1984, needs extensive work to address lack of space, poor use of the facility and outdated items such as windows that need replacing.
At Wednesday's council meeting, a report on the stat of the township's facilities will be presented and council will consider next steps.
An architect, with +VG Architects, did an analysis of the site in 2015 as well as an updated analysis of the facility more recently, finding issues that needed addressing each time. However further problems in addition to the architect's findings are also noted in a report.
“The facility needs identified in 2015 remain and have increased,” states the report.
There were several problems regarding the physical operation and nature of the building.
“The windows of the facility have far exceeded their life expectancy. The seals have failed resulting in heat loss and some windows are leaking causing damage inside the facility. All windows need to be replaced.”
“The facility insulation is lacking significantly in terms of current standards and energy efficiency. This building in its current condition is not cost effective to heat/cool.”
“The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems are all beyond their life expectancy. They are extremely costly to repair to keep functioning and do not meet current standards.”
There is a fire hall attached to the building. Currently there are far better options with regard to the set up of the facility. One of them being ventilation where firefighting gear is stored, which would protect firefighters from carcinogenic contaminants in the gear.
“A properly designed ventilation system will ensure air exchange in the bunker gear storage room, controlling the carcinogens that can off gas from contaminated gear that has been stored in the room.”
“Firefighters that wear gear that has prolonged exposure to diesel particulates are at a much higher risk of developing certain cancers.”
Residents that need to access township staff would have a much easier time with a single, large counter between them and the staff.
“The proven successful model for municipalities of this size is to provide a larger one‐counter approach for use by all departments. This greatly improves customer service.”
The building is lacking necessary washrooms and showers.
“Currently one small washroom (not accessible) is available for all Public Works, Parks, and Facilities staff. There are no showers (male or female) and no designated female washrooms. These are required.”
The updating process of the municipal building is also bringing up the issue of the lack of child care in the Puslinch area. A suggestion is to add a sort of child care operation in an unused portion of the municipal building site.
Some solutions that have been put forward to update the effectiveness of how the building is used include reallocating space as well as offering work from home.
“The first and most practical (and often most economic) approach is to evaluate the needs along with the currently available space at all municipally owned facilities and to redeploy forces where surplus space is currently available.”
“A new model that many private industries have moved to, as have a number of municipalities, is to reduce the overall floorplan based to maximize the benefit of a work‐from‐home model.”
The report states that there are some options to help with financing the needed work, inmcluding utilizing the township's Asset Management Discretionary Reserve. The current balance in this discretionary reserve after the 2022 budget contribution and 2021 surplus contribution is approximately $5.3M.
“The Township has secured grant funding of $168,311 from the Enabling Accessibility Fund for the construction of accessible washrooms and the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Funding – COVID‐19 Resilience Stream for HVAC upgrades at the Municipal Office. The amount of funding remaining related to these two grant programs is $144K.”
Jesse Gault is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
