Mayor Dave Formosa is suggesting that city hall be given a facelift.
At the September 29 committee of the whole meeting, Formosa said he was talking with chief administrative officer Russell Brewer, who was mentioning that the city may be getting some funds from the federal government due to COVID-19, as part of money the government is looking at putting out to Canadian municipalities.
“There were some guesstimates of how much money we would receive,” said Formosa. “It’s not huge but it’s a nice sum. I don’t want to say it because we don’t know for sure yet.
“What it brought me to, though, was that our community forest has been providing funds to everyone in this region to upgrade and fix their buildings. Everybody and their society have had their buildings upgraded. Our building [city hall] is falling apart.”
Formosa said the building has old single-pane windows that shudder.
“They make so much noise when we are having meetings that we can’t hear each other in the wind,” said Formosa. “We have no air conditioning in here and it’s stifling hot. The roof is probably in need. The exterior walls are failing. If you look at the stucco, you’ll see it’s all cracked. That’s a failure of the exterior envelope of the building and God knows what’s behind that.”
Formosa said he thinks it’s time staff was asked to create a report.
“We will find the money and get this building envelope under control before we lose it,” said Formosa. “We cannot afford to build another one. This one is in a good location. Now that the library is gone, we have ample room for our growing community and our growing services. This building needs work.”
Formosa said when he first was elected to council, a new city hall was on the docket. He said the new group of councillors who came in killed the initiative after looking at the finances of the city and asked where the money was going to come from.
“I guess for a million or a million and a half bucks, we can do the outside of this building properly, with windows, air conditioning and heating,” said Formosa. “I would like to move that council receives a report on bringing this building up to safe standards for us and for the public and for the building, so we don’t lose it.”
Councillor Maggie Hathaway asked if the mayor was looking at applying for federal infrastructure funding and the city providing matching dollars from Powell River Community Forest.
Formosa said he is hoping the funds he hears are coming may be enough to do the whole project. If not, then the city would be applying to the community forest for a grant to do it.
“We all know we have no money,” said Formosa.
Director of infrastructure Tor Birtig said the funding was a per capital contribution and could be up to $1 million.
“There’s no details on this funding announcement just yet,” said Birtig.
Hathaway said it is a revitalization fund but that doesn’t mean the money can be used to rebuild city hall.
Formosa said with the conversation he’s had, he’s hoping there are no strings attached, but regardless, a report is needed because the city would have to go to the community forest.
Hathaway said she concurs but she was just looking for more details.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she was in favour of a report and suggested that input be received from the city’s sustainability planner, who has the expertise to look at not only structural matters, but ways to improve energy efficiency of the building.
Councillor George Doubt said a report is needed to look at upgrading city hall envelope-wise and energy-wise to make sure the building is stable and more energy efficient. He said the hope is that the city can get some funding from the federal government and if matching funds are needed, the city would apply to the community forest so council is not talking about a tax increase to pay for it.
“I think that’s all a good idea,” said Doubt.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said the city needs to get the building envelope study done.
The committee voted in favour of city council receiving a study.
