The vision for the Thorold Museum and Cultural Centre is slowly taking shape, but council is not sold on the museum board’s plans for the old fire station on Towpath Street — because the project has doubled in price.
“Council approved moving forward with this, with an understanding that we'd be responsible for $1.1M,” said Councillor Anthony Longo. “I think we need to have other options here than the one presented. It’s gone quite a bit too far.”
As ThoroldToday reported, the Thorold Museum has received over $6M in funding from the federal government to turn Fire Station 1 on Towpath Street into their permanent home.
Raimondo + Associates was tapped to draw up plans for the renovation, which they presented to council on Tuesday evening. The redesigned building would add a second floor, as well as a courtyard that features the exposed remnants of the old canal underneath the building.
But council members weren’t too enthusiastic when they found out the project costs had ballooned to almost $12M, from an initial budget of roughly $7M.
“We have other projects we have to concentrate on,” said Councillor Mike De Divitiis. “We have to think about the whole community. I think they have to work with the budget they already have.”
Emilio Raimondo was asked if there was a different option on the table that would cost less money.
“We explored alternative designs,” he answered. “The building is relatively small in area…In our opinion it wasn’t adequate in square footage.”
The City’s Director of Finance Maria Mauro explained, that given the current scope of the project, it could mean a 2.8 per cent tax levy increase for Thorold residents.
Councillor Tim O’Hare asked City Hall staff if it was possible to stretch out the development period so the cost wouldn’t hit the taxpayer at all once. But because the project is partly funded with a grant from a retrofit program to make old buildings more energy efficient, the project has to be completed by March 31, 2029.
When the project first came to council last year, the city committed to a maximum of $1.5M, with the understanding that the Thorold Museum would raise some funds themselves. But so far, none of that fundraising has taken place. Which made it even harder for councillors to swallow the exuberant price tag of the project.
“The fundraising campaign is going to depend on what we’re building,” explained Director of Community Services Geoff Holman. “Until the scope of the project is defined it’s really hard to initiate a fundraising strategy. You also need to know how much money we need to raise. Confirming the project scope is a really important first step.”
In the end, council voted to get a staff report on other design options that keeps the project within a budget of $7,840,000 with the city’s upset limit of costs being $1,568,000.
