Members of Chatham-Kent council are being tight-lipped about a rumour that Mayor Randy Hope has asked council to consider moving from the current Civic Centre to set up shop in the Downtown Chatham Centre.
On social media, the question was asked if anyone knew what was going into the old Sears store in the Downtown Chatham Centre, and one responder replied that “the municipality is currently studying to see if they should buy it and turn it into the new city hall and leave the Civic Centre. This was directly from a senior municipality employee.”
Calls to Mayor Hope and several council members were not returned by press time except from Chatham Coun. Derek Robertson.
“I’m not ready to disclose information that was discussed in closed session (by council),” Robertson told The Voice. “Any leak of information from a senior employee is inappropriate.”
The rumour, however, has made it out into the community, with two separate sources telling The Voice the idea was brought to council members and was not well received by some members.
Council received and voted on a report from municipal staff back in January regarding upgrades needed to the current Civic Centre.
At that time, staff presented a report with several options, recommending an option with an estimated cost of $14.4 million that involved upgrades to core systems, a change to the building layout and moving the council chamber to the first floor.
Other options in January included an $11.6 million overhaul including the renovations without council chamber relocation and an option for a brand new building on municipally owned land at an estimated cost of $23.8 million.
The report states that over the next five years, the Civic Centre will need $11 million worth of work done due to lifecycle requirements, including updating the HVAC system.
According to the January report from staff, the Civic Centre first opened in 1977, housing the former City of Chatham administrative offices. Since 1998, it has been the primary location for the mayor, chief administrative officer and many other divisions of the municipality.
There are 188 employees currently working within the Civic Centre’s approximately 45,000 square feet of floor space. The building receives about 50,000 visitors per year.
I am not in agreement with the idea of moving City hall to the mall. Do the same thing with City hall & all the employees (this includes our elected employees) that was done with the hospitals. They have become much more efficient & it is noticeable. We are becoming a city with a majority of seniors and tax increases have got to stop. Get busy & do your job which includes maintaining City hall over the years not all at once with no money set aside in each budget to pay for this maintenance.
This is a major problem!!! Not putting away money aside in a fund to pay for up keep and maintenance on civic centre. What is the problem with our Mayor,Council and Staff. Mr Mayor, I think you want things that do not fit the bill. I say a BIG NO to going to sears building. Do we as a Municipality want another headache with extreme expense for that building. NO!!! For sure we do not want any money taking out of the reserve fund either like you did for that 15% you bought in with the wind company for the North Kent One project that is destroying water wells in that area. You are not helping those residents at all. Really how much more are we giving to that project as when the Mayor received his big wind award he mention in the article that the Municipality put in another 8 million, do not know if the other businesses put any money towards St. Clair College for wind.
What really and how much money was spent for wind company. I think the citizens of Chatham Kent should know how much money went towards this project. We do not need council and staff moving to another building that will be of more expense for the citizens.