What was once temporary will soon be permanent.
The Oro-Medonte Township municipal bylaw enforcement division’s current home has been targeted for a ‘spit and polish’ — a retrofit that will accommodate the division's needs for at least the next 10 years.
At the township’s council meeting on Sept. 11, council passed a motion authorizing staff to issue the tender to retrofit the Shanty Bay fire hall, located on Ridge Road in the heart of the village.
According to Shawn Binns, the township's chief administrative officer, the project could be considered “a facelift.”
He said the scope of the project includes aesthetic changes to the building: exterior cladding, a new window, some landscaping and the addition of a small, heated vestibule to the back of the building that will be used to store materials and provide “up-sized water service” — a two-inch hose — to address the challenges faced by the volunteers who take care of the outdoor rink near the building.
The project was considered and approved by council during the 2024 budget recalibration with the following provisions:
- provisional budgetary approval of the project with a total budget of $580,000 split equally ($290,000) in 2024 and 2025 due to anticipated timing of design/construction
- approval of $30,000 to complete the necessary architectural design, refine costing and preparation of tender documents
- staff report back following the completion of the design with updated cost estimates and an assessment of the effectiveness of the temporary accommodations for the municipal law division within the Shanty Bay fire hall.
“While Fire Hall 1 – Line 3 South fire hall — has provided temporary accommodation for the municipal law division, it is not optimal for the current and future needs of the division or fire and emergency services,” Brent Spagnol, the township's director of development services, wrote in his report to council.
“The current space being utilized by municipal law within Fire Hall 1 was originally intended for storage of equipment, is accessed by stairs (inside and outside) and is disjointed as certain members of the division are in different offices throughout the building," he added.
According to Spagnol, the office accommodations were always considered to be a temporary solution.
“The space was retrofitted for temporary use and was not originally designed to provide suitable office workspace for team members,” he said.
Spagnol told council the architectural design has been completed and the township is ready to move to the next stage.
“Staff are seeking council’s endorsement to move forward with the project to look at providing permanent accommodation for the division,” Spagnol said.
He said staff see the retrofit as an investment in existing township infrastructure, an investment in the division and an opportunity for future planning and service delivery that will move the municipality forward.
“It’s on this basis that staff are recommending council endorse the project so we can relocate the division to the Shanty Bay fire hall on a permanent basis,” Spagnol said.
According to Spagnol, the municipal law enforcement division is expected to grow over the next few years and this retrofit will be able to accommodate its needs to about 2035.
