County Admin Reno Progressing Well, Except For Expensive Hole In The Ground

Jeff Green | Apr 26, 2023

As part of his monthly Admin report to Frontenac County Council, CAO Kelly Pender presented a slide show of the current state of the office renovation. The images show how what was formerly a large home has been gutted and is being transformed into efficient office space for county staff. 

Then came the slide with the hole in the ground.

The renovations that are underway will create a number of uses, for county admin staff, the Cataraqui Conservation Authority, who will be a co-tenant, and the county-run Frontenac Paramedic Services.

The hole in the ground, which is next to part of the existing building on the south end, is where a Paramedic Training centre is slated to be constructed.

“The geotechnical study we did indicated bedrock in that location, but that turned out to be two large boulders, which have been removed,” said Pender.

The digging started from there, and the hole that has been dug so far has cost $30,000, and there is no way of knowing how much more digging will be required, and the measures that would be required to make sure the existing building is not compromised, by digging further, are also expensive.

Pender said that a second option is to apply and compact gravell in the existing hole, and add an 18-24 inch concrete pad,  also an expensive plan.

Other options include putting an extra floor above the location where a council chamber is being constructed, in order to accommodate the training space, or renting a 5,000 square foot space elsewhere.

“The advantage of a rental space for the paramedic training is that the cost would be shared with the province, and the City of Kingston, for rental space so it would not cost Frontenac ratepayers that much, whereas we pay for the capital construction out of our own budget,” Pender said. “But this whole matter may require a special meeting to work through.”

North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty and Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood Speers both said they did not favour a rental solution, with Lichty saying the cost of cancelling part of the project would be significant with “no return for that expenditure” and Greenwood Speers saying, “it is not a good look to be renting space instead of making the building work as originally intended, but we need the final numbers about what we are looking at here.”

Kelly Pender said that the county will be getting some more definitive costing numbers within a week or so.

“The best solution is for them to come back and tell us what this hole will cost. We are to lose all the HVAC that we have already purchased if we give up on this spot, and have to pay to get rid of it. I do like the option of staying the course,” said Warden Ron Vandewal. “It will be interesting to see how expensive this part is going to be.”

Fairmount rebuild plan returns

A report and presentation on a potential expansion of the 128 bed Fairmount Home, which is co-located with the county admin offices in Glenburnie, was originally presented to the previous council last July. Phil Goodfellow from G Architects, the firm that prepared that report, brought it back for the new council to look at. Given the size of the project, it will be a major issue for this term of council, and the bulk of the meeting was devoted to a discussion centring on G architects recommendation to build a new 160 bed home at an estimated cost of $60 million (based on a costing done in the spring of 2022) and convert the existing facility to other uses, perhaps as a rental space or housing project.

The other option, to build an addition to the existing home to accommodate 32 more beds was also cost in 2022, at $18 million.

Based on the G architect report, which looked at how best practices in long term care have changed since the most recent renovation of Fairmount in 2004, when it was expanded from 96 to 128 beds, the existing building has a number of shortcomings that make adding on to it less desirable.

He also said that because of the cost of renovation, the cost per unit to build a 32 bed extension would be $510,000 as opposed to $354,000 with a new 160 bed facility.

There was much conversation about the proposal, as the prospect of a $60million project for a small organisation like Frontenac County  is daunting.

“I don't know, unless the Province gives us a $50million grant, how we can possibly pay for this,” said Gerry Lichty.

Judy Greenwood-Speers said that it might be an idea to build a stand-alone 32 bed building, adjacent to the existing building, purpose built for high needs patients.

She also said, “considering that Fairmount Home is located in Kingston and only about 10 or 12 Frontenac County residents use it, $60 million is a lot.”

CAO Pender said that one option, that is not on the table, is doing nothing and keeping the 128 bed home as it is.

“The province wants to see 30,000 new long term care beds built, and they are expecting everyone to play their part. We have been in discussions with them about financing rules that make it difficult for us to proceed, but staying with 128 beds is not an option,” Pender said.

Council agreed that they should come to a decision about which direction they want to take, before committing to much more study, but for now they decided to get some updated costing in order to make a decision.

“If you asked me to make a decision today on which way to go, I couldn't,” said Warden Vandewal.

Once updated costing is available, and council members have a chance to look in more detail at potential options, the matter will return to the county table.

Open Farms 2.0

The popular County run Open Farms event in September is changing. Council approved a recommendation from the Planning and Economic Development Committee to declare the period from September 1 to October 15 as “Open Farm Days”. During this time, members of the local agricultural community will be encouraged to organise events, with the county playing a coordinating role.

Contracts signed with Paramedic unions

The good news – Council met in closed session to learn of contract settlements with both UPSEU Local 462 and CUPE Local 109, which were then ratified in open session. The less good news. Both contracts only run until the end of 2023 - The not so good news, contract negotiations with CUPE Local 2290, representing unionised workers at both Fairmount Home and Frontenac County Administration, are not settled and are now moving to an “interest arbitration” process, for which a date has not yet been determined.