FERGUS – Centre Wellington's new new $27-million new operations centre is nearly at the shovel-ready stage.
It was one of the projects being discussed Thursday during a township town hall at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex that included a speech by mayor Kelly Linton.
The new operations centre set to be built at 965 Gartshore St. in Fergus was narrowly approved by council last June and the land was purchased later in September.
Stephanie Rossi, asset management and capital project manager, said in an interview the project is currently at a request for proposal stage for consulting services to do the site development and conceptual design work which would nearly bring it to shovel-ready status.
She noted many of their existing public works buildings are over-capacity, outdated and no longer serve the needs of the rapidly growing community, using the Fergus water works building as an example.
“The original part is 60 years old, the guys in here are so crowded they literally have a portable in the back end of this building,” Rossi said, adding workers have had to expand into the lunch room. “It’s such a tight site and there’s no room to expand.”
Mayor Kelly Linton also stressed in his speech the current buildings are beyond their useful service life.
“This department provides core services to our residents and to our community and it’s absolutely needed,” mayor Kelly Linton said in his presentation. “If you wanted a tour of our existing facilities it would take you all of 30 seconds to realize that is needed.”
The project is planned to be done in two stages and Rossi said will eventually replace seven of nine public works buildings with an Elora and Belwood location to be kept as satellite locations.
Linton said getting the Centre Wellington Business Park up and running is one of the biggest priorities the township has.
He explained the 56-acre site in north Fergus will have 23 fully-serviced lots with design standards and landscaping to keep a nice appearance. He highlighted a heritage barn on the property which will be fixed and kept on the grounds which has inspired some of the branding at the park.
“We’re using that farmhouse to make sure that the heritage of the area is promoted in the middle of the business park,” Linton said, later adding jobs and investment are critical especially when considered from a tax perspective.
Linton said their economic development team has seen a lot of interest in lots in the park and the plan is to get the project off the ground this year and the next.
The mayor at one point shifted to what he called the number one issue in Centre Wellington, the lack of attainable or affordable housing.
“It’s an urgent situation that we have right now where we have so many individuals and families who can’t afford to live in the community that they love and we have to do something,” Linton said.
“We need to get beyond NIMBY thinking because it’s our kids we’re worried about and it’s our parents that can’t afford to live in Centre Wellington.”
He noted the county’s recent campaign to address NIMBYism through stories of those who can’t afford to live in Wellington County but at the township level he highlighted the healthy growth advisory committee working to remove the red tape around getting housing built.
“We’re looking at the potential of a pilot project to consider attainable housing, maybe on township land somewhere,” Linton said. “Somewhere we can move through the process in a more time efficient way.”
These kinds of recommendations will be coming to council in the future, therefore Linton encouraged the crowd to have their voice heard on this issue.
“Make it clear to your local members of council that this is important to you and it’s important to your neighbours that we make sure Centre Wellington is a place that you can afford to live in,” Linton said. “They are hearing other things right now as well, so they have to make sure to hear that voice.”
