Former mayor, local businessman propose solution to Town’s “police station problem”

Written By PETER RICHARDSON

Council Monday Night heard a delegation from Ed Crewson and Paolo Pambianchi offering an alternative to building a new police station in the community.

They proposed that the Town rent the old Steadman's building from Paolo's company, Owen Green Developments Inc. after it was renovated to become an appropriate home.

To accomplish this, a request was made for access to the latest report to Council regarding the requirements for a Police station. The Clerk, Jennifer Willoughby, explained that since portions of the report were heard, in camera, that the request would have to be made via a Freedom of Information Act inquiry. This was then emphasized by CAO Denyse Morrissey, who added that staff would need time to evaluate exactly what could be provided and what would have to be redacted.

Councillor Wade Mills, who will replace Ken Bennington as Shelburne's mayor following the Oct. 22 municipal election, expressed his appreciation of the effort put forward in the presentation, but proffered that, at this time, it was not possible to do anything more than accept the presentation and then consider it at some later date, after the OPP Costings had been received, on January 14th, 2019.

Both he and Deputy Mayor Geoff Dunlop also stated that, as the original report, by Walter Fedy was already in the public domain and that anyone interested in developing a proposal could use the FOIA to request more details, and that Council would undoubtedly issue a Request for Proposals, or RFP, should they wish to receive submissions, that this request was premature.

Mr. Crewson, in response to a question from the deputy mayor, admitted that, the information was to provide Mr. Pambianchi with a leg up, over any competition, in preparing a proposal, however, no one else could provide a ready building in the downtown core that could house the Police Service. Regardless, Council voted to accept the delegation as presented and to not grant the request.

Although certainly an option, the leasing of a police facility does not make a lot of sense fiscally. Rents are never concrete and, compared to ownership of the land and building, are a source of some concern for a community.

Likewise, ownership provides equity and is considered a financial asset, whereas rent is a liability. Needless to say, in securing its due diligence, the new Council may well issue an RFP for options beyond the OPP costing, as it will have six months from receipt of the costing, in order to make a decision. Whatever the final decision, it most certainly falls to the incoming Council to make one.

Following the delegation, Council heard from Town Planner Steve Wever, on an application from Tribute Homes for a second, Pre-servicing Agreement, to allow them to do further work prior to applying for the final approvals. They also asked that the required security deposit be reduced to 50% from 110% as ordained ninth by-law. The new work, was to include constructing the underground services and the roads, referencing and listing the engineering drawings for same, the aforementioned security deposit and identifying required approvals and scheduling provisions.

Mr. Wever explained, that many municipalities, since they are not obligated to assume the infrastructure and no lots are registered, request a lower deposit than Shelburne currently requests. Most require 50% of the costs of the proposed work. He recommended that for this agreement, Shelburne accept 50% plus a 15% contingency and the HST.

Further to the Pre-servicing agreement, Tribute requested a Supplemental agreement to cover the Raising of noise barriers for some 69 of the proposed lots, which would back onto the existing industrial lands surrounding the development. These noise mitigation measures, would have to be designed and installed to the Town's satisfaction, with the 110% deposit, easements for service and maintenance , engineering certification for compliance with regulated standards  an 8 year maintenance period for developer responsibility for the measures, provisions to change the heights, should circumstances change,Notifications to the buyers regarding their responsibility to own and maintain the fences and warning clauses within the purchase agreements and registered on title.

The fences, which primarily would surround three side of the development, would stand 15 feet high and be made of aluminium frames and cedar boards. Mr. Wever however, pointed out that this was a worst case scenario height pending a decision from KT World as to their future production plans. He said that at the moment, the company was not planning to resume production in it's previous locations and that this would mitigate the noise abatement required considerably. If so, the height of the majority of the fencing would be dramatically reduced.

Despite some concerns regarding the length of the developer maintenance period, possibly not long enough and the positioning of the townhomes along Main St/Hwy. 89, Council accepted the requests as presented and authorized the issuance of the required permissions.

Finally, a report was heard from Carol Maitland, of the EDC regarding the redesign of the Town website. The current website, has come under considerable criticism over it's deficiencies and it being difficult to navigate. Council had issued a RFP to source a new website design and Carol was there to present the results. She told Council, that four companies had returned proposals, three in Canada and one from Second California. Of these, the presentation from eSolutions of Waterloo Ontario checked off the most buttons, in the RFP. Over the last 5 years, eSolutions has received 130 awards and has prepared award winning websites for many communities, including, Guelph, Cambridge, Kingsville, Prince George, Pickering and some 350 other community partners.

The proposal came in under the Town's proposed budget, of $51,200, at only $42,124.64, including HST and Council voted to accept the report and to grant the project to eSolutions, for the quoted price.