County spends over $650,000 on architects

County coun­cillors vetoed the idea of hiring a staff architect after some hefty expenditures were ap­prov­ed for that on June 26.

Councillor Lou Maieron not­ed architects’ fees for social hous­ing would approach $357,000, there would be $139,000 in costs for the archives addition at the county museum, and $170,000  more for renovations for the Carnegie libraries in Elora, Fer­gus, and Mount Forest.

Maieron said if the county checks with the Royal Institute of Architects, it could find its own staff architect and save. He added he was not sure what that might cost, but, “If we’re going to continue to build and renovate, look at an architect … It’s a lot of money going out to archi­tects.”

Councillor Mike Broom­head, the chairman of the ad­ministration, finance, and per­son­nel committee, said that idea “has some merit,” but he foresaw problems. Each archi­tec­tural firm has areas of ex­per­tise, and one that is hired for an arena complex might not suit for building a library.

“They specialize,” he said.

Councillor Brad Whit­combe added, “It wouldn’t be practical for us.

He noted some are “not best for a particular job.”

Plus, he added, “We’d have to keep that guy busy.” He pointed out that in the five year forecast, a lot of building and renovation work for the county is “coming to an end.”

Councillor Mark MacKen­zie asked Whitcombe why one company was chosen for a  project, when it was the highest bidder, and, in some cases, more than double other bids.

Whitcombe said cost is one factor. Past history, the inter­view for the job, and other fac­tors are taken into considera­tion in hiring.

He noted had the lowest bid but on other work it had had “quite a number of changes” to its recent projects. “You have to read in between the lines.”