Ompah Fire Hall Controversy Leads to Public Apology

Jeff Green | Feb 10, 2016

Steve Sunderland, the volunteer who supervised the $275,000 renovation project at the Ompah fire hall/community center/library, appeared before North Frontenac Council last Friday, February 4. He was accompanied by Judy Hitchcock of JMJ Contracting from McDonalds Corners, the company that installed a concrete floor in the hall as part of the renovation.

They were appearing in response to reports by township Chief Building Official Jeremy Neven that were received by Council at their previous meeting on January 18, and to comments made at that meeting by members of council as reported in this newspaper.

The building department reports were focused mainly on a number of electrical and plumbing-related deficiencies that need to be re-mediated in order for the building to comply with the Ontario building code. There was also a reference in the first report to “no insulation under portions of the radiant floor insulation system”.

In a written response that Sunderland sent to Council in advance of appearing last week, he outlined how the project had come about in the first place, and his and Judy Hitchcock's roles in its completion.

In 2013 Sunderland was asked to chair a task force to design an upgrade to the fire hall/community centre after Council had rejected a recommendation to abandon the building and put up a new one. The budget for the upgrade was $180,000. When the technical drawings were completed in August of that year the project went to tender and received no bids. In early 2014, a new tender was issued and the lowest bid that came in was for $365,000.

Council then asked the task force to “come up with a sequential tendering process whereby the work could proceed and the budget carefully monitored on a project-by-project basis,” Sunderland wrote.

He said that he had explained to Council at the time that as the general contractor they assumed all risks associated with the construction. These included: “potential poor coordination between trades; cost overruns; engineering concerns; unforeseen site conditions; change in orders; poor weather; no workers during hunting season; uninformed decisions; mistakes; and the like. Council at that time agreed to proceed.”

The project was to be managed, according to Sunderland, by then Fire Chief Steve Riddell, then Deputy Fire Chief Denis Bedard, and Councilor John Inglis, with overall management by Chief Administrative Officer Cheryl Robson. For various reasons, including the removal of Bedard from the fire department, most of the project management eventually fell to Sunderland.

“I think it is obvious why [I am] a bit defensive when [my] project management skills, motives and commitment are questioned by people in the community who had little or no stake in the project,” he wrote.

Sunderland went on to discuss the concrete floor and in-floor heating system that was installed, at length.

He pointed out that as early as 2012, when putting in a new floor was first considered, Mike Cleland, a structural engineer and task force volunteer, recommended that a new fire station be built after supervising an excavation into the existing concrete flooring in the fire hall.

“When Council rejected this recommendation, Mike Cleland refused to participate in the renovation project,” said Sunderland.

He went on to say that he “personally begged” JMJ contracting to do the concrete floor. Among the problems that were found was a granite outcrop in the front 1/3 of the building. The township was informed about this, and did not opt to go to the expense, risk, and delay involved in removing the rock.

According to Sunderland, “Under the circumstances the township was fortunate to have JMJ do the work ... the rock outcrop is one of the unforeseen risks the township accepted as part of this renovation.”

At the council meeting on January 18, Denis Bedard, whi is now a member of council, said, “The biggest and most major issue is the fact that the floor was improperly installed. We spent a pile of money on a concrete floor with the chances now of it heaving and destroying the in-floor heating system.”

“What force is there that is going to heave that floor? Sunderland asked.

It was also this comment by Bedard that led Judy Hitchcock to address Council directly.

“Nobody came to me and said there were deficiencies ... to say the concrete was poured incorrectly, it is completely false. Why did that go into the paper, without my knowledge, without a meeting with myself?” she asked.

“The building inspector put this in the report,” Bedard responded.

“Where?” Hitchcock asked. “Where does it say that in the report?”

Bedard looked at his copy of the report and could not find the statement.

Hitchcock also said that before doing any of the work she made sure she had the go-ahead from the building inspector of the day, George Gorrie.

CAO Cheryl Robson said that when staff went looking for the inspection reports for the project last month they did not find them.

Both George Gorrie and Steve Riddell, who were respectively the building inspector and fire chief at the time the project took place, are no longer with the township.

Mayor Higgins said that since the project took place under the previous council, he has been working to make sure it is only “factual data” that is being communicated to Council and the public.

“There is no record that I am aware of from an official point of view that the concrete is deficient,” Higgins said.

“No insulation under the radiant floor is part of the building code,” said Councilor Bedard.

“How does he know whether the insulation is or is not there? When the rock goes under the entire front half of the job, we couldn't pour any insulation there. For [current Chief Building Official] Jeremy Neven to say that is totally irresponsible and it is not a deficiency. And what does it have to do with the code?” said Steve Sunderland.

Curiously, even though all of the building department documentation for the project has gone missing, and Neven's report was based entirely on “visible items and no destructive inspections were carried out”, there was one exception. The determination that there is “no insulation under portions of the radiant floor heating system” was based on “images provided during the inspection”.

The report does not say who provided the images and where they came from.

Upon inquiry, the News has been informed by Mayor Higgins that those images were provided to Neven by the Ompah Community Volunteers Association. The Association have pledged $50,000 towards the project but are waiting for the deficiencies in the fire hall top be dealt with before turning the money over to the township.

As far as Judy Hitchcock is concerned, however, all of the internal North Frontenac politics are not her problem, but she is concerned about her professional reputation.

“'Oh Canada' is what we call rock outcrops like that in the trade. The thing to do is to remove them, but we were told no. I asked engineers, I made phone calls to everyone involved, I made phone calls to George [Gorrie] ... I did my job on this project and then I see this kind of thing reported in the paper ... it is not good for my reputation. I want a public apology, from the paper and the township itself,” Hitchcock said.

“I agree with you,” Mayor Higgins said.

Higgins put a motion on the floor authorizing him to write a letter of apology, and the motion carried. The letter can be viewed, in its entirety at Northfrontenac.com.