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Options to come over Lavigne Fire Station building

Members of West Nipissing council won’t be able to get an engineer to come back to the municipality and tell them that a five-year-old report on the condition of the Lavigne Fire Station building is still valid.

A minority of the council members believe that after five years, the condition of the building has changed and the report is no longer valid.

At issue is whether council should spend about $372,000 to improve the fire station.

As some councillors expressed, they don’t want to throw good money after bad in the event the building will need still more work in just a few years or perhaps an entirely new structure will have to replace the existing firehouse.

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Staff stood by the five-year-old report saying that the engineer was able to update the report thanks to a series of photographs taken of the building which he studied to arrive at his latest assessment.

The CAO told council that the earlier report explains that the building is sound and the engineer put his stamp of approval on the update.

One of the people who did not feel confident about current matters was Mayor Joanne Savage who preferred a visual inspection be carried out.

Councillor Denis Senecal also questioned the wisdom of relying on an old report.

As the debate dragged on CAO Jay Barbeau told council he has talked to the engineer who reaffirmed the structural soundness of the building.

However, Denis Senecal wanted assurances that the building hadn’t moved since the report was first put together.

Councillor Dan Roveda said the recent pictures of the building were enough for him.

He said all parties involved gave the building a stamp of approval and questioned why ask for a site visit when it wasn’t necessary.

When the vote was called for who wanted another engineering visit, only four councillors supported that measure but they were in the minority.

This group lost the vote and the decision was made for staff to come to council with options.

During the debate, council learned that carrying out some remedial work on the building can extend its life by 15 to 30 years.

Conversely, it would cost $1.2 million to $1.5 million for a new fire hall.

The options from staff are expected back for council’s April 23rd meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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