Minto councillor Ron Elliott wants Wellington County to reconsider plans to demolish the building currently used as a Wellington County OPP detachment here.
At the Dec. 3 council meeting Elliott told council he was upset to learn about the planned demolition through the Wellington Advertiser.
Elliott suggested the property, should have been offered to the town, or for sale to a private developer, rather than simply being torn down.
“No one has had the opportunity to buy that. At least give someone the opportunity. If no one is interested in six months, tear it down,” said Elliott.
Just prior to amalgamation in 1999, the building, which once housed the former Town of Palmerston municipal office, police station and fire hall, was sold to the county for $225,000 for use as the northern headquarters for the Wellington OPP. The OPP is preparing to move into a new facility at Teviotdale in February.
Mayor George Bridge said the county wasn’t interested in selling the land in Palmerston.
“They’re going to keep the land. They’re going to develop it. They decided they didn’t want the building any more,” Bridge said.
If retained by the town or county, Bridge said, the facility would have an accessibility issue and would require an elevator for the second floor.
Bridge also said it is unlikely the county would give the facility to Minto for a nominal price if the plan was simply to re-sell it to a developer.
“If we didn’t have a use for it municipally, then I don’t think they would offer us a discounted rate. I think they would ask for a decent price on it. I don’t know if we’d have the opportunity to flip it,” the mayor stated.
However, Elliott insisted selling the property at any price would make more sense than spending money on demolition.
“Wouldn’t it be better to sell that, even if they sold it for $10,000, $20,000, $5, $2? … Let the contractor decide, or our municipality decide. what they want to do with that and turn it into a useful building, rather than spending, I don’t know what it costs, $60,000, $70,000 to tear it down.”
Bridge advised council that during discussion on the building, Wellington County CAO Scott Wilson said it’s “not normal” for the county to sell land.
“They’d like to keep [the land] because there might be a future use for it,” said Bridge. “I think what will happen is, once the building is ripped down, they’ll have a valuable piece of property sitting in the middle of town.”
Bridge noted the committee investigating Minto’s Creative Business Incubator project considered the building, but it was rejected primarily due to the accessibility issues.
Elliott suggested an elevator could be installed for $30,000 to $40,000, but Bridge said it would cost “at least $150,000.”
“For $32,000 you can put an elevator in,” insisted Elliott.
Councillor Rick Hembly agreed with Bridge on the higher figure for the elevator, but agreed with Elliott that it would be unfortunate to lose the building.
“It’s a shame to lose another structure … we don’t need another parking lot,” said Hembly.
CAO Bill White offered to have staff collect information from the county on the decision and report back to council.
He noted the situation is different from the town’s recent purchase of the Harriston Senior School property, which was re-sold to a developer.
“We did that because the building had to come down and we wanted to make sure it didn’t become a problem long term. The county is solving that by taking it down. We don’t have that issue,” White explained.
“All I can tell you is the county feels they want to keep the property. We’ve had inquiries about the property. We sent them down to county and the county can make that decision,” said Bridge, who told council he voted in favour of the demolition plan when it came up at county council in November.
“I voted for it … I didn’t think there was a use that we could do and I didn’t want it to fall into somebody’s hands, just like we’re concerned about.”
“Maybe they could pay us $60,000 to take it, instead of paying $60,000 to tear it down,” Elliott suggested.
“But what would we want it for?” asked Bridge.
“Then we could sell it … I think it’s the right thing for our community and I think that’s what we should be looking to do – the right thing,” said Elliott.
Councillor Dave Turton agreed with the idea of having a staff report provided to council.
“I think it would be good to know exactly what their thought process was, because I’ve had a couple of people ask me – is it coming down? I read about it in the Wellington Advertiser – I wasn’t sure,” said Turton
“I was blindsided too,” added Hembly.
Bridge suggested the staff report be prepared in time for the Dec. 17 meeting, as he anticipated the demolition will occur in February, once the OPP move to the new building.
