In for a penny...

Jeff Green | Jan 06, 2016

It is disconcerting that Central Frontenac Council purchased Sharbot Lake Public School on November 24 for $110,000, and five weeks later had to hold an emergency meeting just four days before Christmas to decide to tear down the building.

The emergency meeting was needed because after a site visit the week before, politicians and staff saw that the building was not viable and felt they needed a council decision before putting any more oil into the fuel tank of a building that needs to be torn down.

The decision they made on December 21 seems prudent enough, but why did they not pay this kind of visit to the building before they bought it on November 24.

Before spending $110,000 they should have made this determination. They should have known that they were facing an extra $150,000 in costs to clear the building and create a lot with a septic system and a well in the middle of Sharbot Lake.

No sense harping on the past, however.

With a quarter of a million dollars now sunk into that property, the council will consult with the public and then must decide how to make good use of the publicly owned property. The easiest thing to do would be to put in a five-unit housing project. Anything larger would put the property in a different category under the Ontario Safe Drinking Water Act, and will require an expensive water and waste water system to be installed and maintained over the long term.

However, given the amount of public money already sunk into the project, anything that is built should have a public use. Just building a five-unit townhouse to be sold on the open market would be difficult for the public to swallow.

It would perhaps be acceptable to Central Frontenac ratepayers to build seniors’ housing to add to the stock of low-income housing in the township. However it still seems that if the lot is worth $250,000 in public money to purchase, it needs to be turned into something that will serve the population of the township, not just five individuals or couples.

It behoves the township to look into the possibility of a larger, multi-use building on the property, one that incorporates a public use, perhaps even a commercial use, as well as seniors’ housing.

That would involve looking at the regulations for a large water system and determining how much it would cost to put one in. Before any of this can be decided the township needs to find out if it is even possible to put up a two or three-storey building in that location, given the size of the lot and its proximity to both basins of Sharbot Lake.

No matter what is built on the site, it will require money from at least one other level of government and/or the private sector, because the township doesn't have the money to build.

The township will also ultimately want to turn whatever is built over to an outside body, perhaps a for profit or not-for-profit corporation, to be responsible for maintenance.

Council does not want to saddle future generations with maintenance costs for a new facility.

All of this underlines the fact that the current council has made a leap into the unknown by buying the two public schools.

The same issues that apply to Sharbot Lake Public School apply to Hinchinbrooke Public School in Parham, although the details are different since the Hinchinbrooke School building is not being torn down, at least in the short term.

All of this is to say that this council will be defined by these purchases and what becomes of those two properties.

In general when townships build things; fire halls, municipal offices, garages, trails, municipal halls etc., they turn out to be community assets that are of value over the long run even if they are controversial at the time.

In 10 years will anyone remember that the township paid $250,000 for a lot?

Only if nothing of lasting value comes of it.