West Nipissing council won’t find it cheap to make the Verner Municipal Building habitable again for its tenants.
Councillors have been told by staff once the final cost is known on the repairs, the building needs to be shored up before the contractors can even go in and start making the identified repairs.
Stephan Poulin, the municipality’s Director of Economic Development and Community Services, warned council the cost won’t be cheap.
Poulin also said it won’t be an easy fix.
Since April 24th, tenants of the building have been working from other locations in West Nipissing because the structure was declared unsafe.
One issue council is grappling with is creating a more conducive working arrangement for Doctor Klere Bourgault who has been treating her patients from the Verner Pharmacy.
Bourgault is Verner’s only doctor, and Mayor Joanne Savage says the doctor is not equipped to serve her patients the way she could when she was at the Verner Municipal Building.
The Verner Pharmacy has some unused space that can be improved and the thinking is to work on this area which would give Bourgault more room.
She currently uses one room at the drug store to see patients while other patients wait in the pharmacy.
A second room serves as the reception area.