Council looks at $100 million price tag for new Fairmount Home

Oct 25, 2023

A proposal to expand and upgrade Fairmount, a 128-bed long term care home that is owned and operated by Frontenac County, has surfaced a few times in the past year. Each time it has come with enough sticker shock to raise eyebrows. The Home was upgraded 20 years ago, when it was expanded from a 96 to 128 beds. The debenture for that project has just been paid off creating space in the Frontenac County budget.

A consultant report back in February came to the conclusion that the most efficient plan would be to let the existing building go, including a $10 million renovation on the auditorium that took place in 2011. The consultant recommended building a brand-new building elsewhere on the Frontenac County “campus” on Montreal Road in Glenburnie. The cost - $60 million, and there was no clear plan on what would be done with the existing building.

At their October Council meeting, Council was asked to provide direction to staff about what they should be working on as regards Fairmount and also a new augmented headquarters for Frontenac Paramedic Services.

The options for Fairmount ranged from do nothing, make improvements to meet post pandemic standards without putting in new beds, renovate and expand the home to a 160-bed facility, or build a brand-new home and repurpose of bulldoze the current building.

The price tag, based on the experience of neighbouring municipalities that are in the midst of similar construction projects, is now an estimated $80 to $100 million, and during the council debate $100million was the number that was being considered, and the potential for a debenture of $2million per year to County ratepayers, which represents 15% of the current levy to ratepayers, was also being considered/

North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty said that the entire debate was premature.

“The first thing we need to do is determine if how much life is left in the current building,” he said, “until then there is no point talking about other options.”

Council opted for option 3, to look at renovating and expanding the existing home, but Lichty said “depending on what we find, we can adjust to up or down the scale of options.”