The Citizen, 2012-11-01, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012.
Two presentations were made at
the Seaforth and District
Community Centre on Friday to
improve the building’s accessibility
and visibility with this year’s hockey
season just getting underway.
Patty Mann from Festival Hydrowas in Seaforth to present a chequeto Huron East’s Chief
Administrative Officer Brad Knight
on Friday. The credit was the result
of an energy audit that was
conducted at community centres in
Seaforth and Brussels, resulting in
energy efficiencies across the board.
The cheque was presented for thenew lighting system at the arena,which has been expanded to include
a greater number of lights and more
energy efficient LED lighting.
The cheque also took into account
savings based on usage, so the more
the municipality was saving, the
greater the amount given back.
Knight said he was “reallypleased” with the project, saying thatit had been a pleasure working with
Mann throughout the project, which
has benefitted the municipality
greatly.
Knight said similar efficiencies
have been noted at the Brussels,
Morris and Grey Community Centre
and will be incorporated over time.
An example he used, was that the
lobby was being heated with an old
electrical furnace, something that
would have never been discovered
without an energy audit.
He says the electric furnace sits
just 10 feet away from the current
natural gas line, but that it had never
been hooked into the line because
when the arena was built, in the
1980s, Brussels didn’t have natural
gas. It has since been hooked up and
things are running much more
efficiently, Knight says.
“Things are much more efficient
now,” Knight said, “but we would
have needed to do an audit to find
that.”
In a similar presentation, Huron-
Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson and a
volunteer member of the grant
review committee from the Ontario
Trillium Foundation were at thearena to present a plaque for fundingthat had been approved months ago.
The funding was going towards
making the community centre
barrier-free and increasing
accessibility. While Knight said the
community centre had already been
fully accessible before the
renovations (which are currently
underway), the improvements will
make the centre barrier-free,
meaning anyone with accessibility
issues or special needs will be able
to manoeuver through the centre
without anyone’s help in the future.
The improvements to the centre’s
accessibility were paid for through a
Trillium grant, the estate of William
Edward Leyburn and the
Municipalities of West Perth and
Huron East.
Knight said several aspects of the
centre “needed a face lift” and in
addition to accessibility
improvements, other improvements
will be made, such as painting.
The total cost of the
improvements, Knight said, is
approximately $80,000. The
improvements include seven
automatic doors.
Huron East Council has
encountered some unexpected costs
in the planned renovations to the
municipal town hall office in
Seaforth.
While costs are expected to
increase, Chief Administrative
Officer Brad Knight expects the
municipality to still meet its initial
deadline for the completion of the
project, the end of November.
Knight told councillors at their
Oct. 16 meeting that initial visual
inspection of the brickwork in the
upper portions of the building
indicated that some work needed to
be done. However, upon closer
inspection, he said, a lot of the
building’s brickwork was simply
covering over trouble areas that will
have to be completely re-bricked.
“There are some spots where the
mortar isn’t as good as we thought,”
Knight said in an interview after last
month’s meeting. “There are
portions that were just powdery and
we’ll have to re-brick them to a
point.”
Knight said that while there was a
contingency fund set aside for
possibilities such as this one, that
fund will likely be used completely,
and then some.
“We had an allowance of $35,000
for contingencies and we’ll certainly
use that up and likely even more
yet.”
Knight said there isn’t cause for
council to panic, but that it’s a
situation that staff will have to
monitor closely as it goes on.
He said that council committed to
fixing up the building, which is over
100 years old, and that issues like
this arise when a building is that old.
“Hopefully it doesn’t cost
significantly more and we can see it
finished,” he said. “The building has
served us well and it’s just going to
cost a little bit more to fix up that old
building.”
Knight said the plan is to have the
project finished by the end of
November. The biggest factor is the
roof, he said. If work continues into
December, there could be significant
dangers associated with workers
being on the roof in December
weather in Huron County and it’s
something council would like to
avoid.
He said that even with the new
discoveries, having work on the roof
completed by the end of November
shouldn’t be a problem.
With the project and the extent of
the wear and damage still unknown
at this point, exact costs going
forward are uncertain until work is
finally completed.
Improvements being made at Seaforth arena
Town hall costs to
exceed expectations
Increasing efficiency
The Seaforth and District Community Centre is more efficient this year than it was last year
thanks to an energy audit that was done by the Municipality of Huron East in conjunction with
Festival Hydro. Last week a cheque was presented to Huron East for energy savings as a
result of the audit. Showing off the centre’s new lights are, from left: Huron East Deputy-Mayor
Joe Steffler, facility operator Kevan Broome, vice-chair of the community centre committee
Paul Spittal and Festival Hydro energy conservation manager Patty Mann. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Accessibility improvements
The Municipality of Huron East is in the process of improving the Seaforth and District
Community Centre to the tune of about $80,000 thanks to a grant from the Ontario Trillium
Foundation and contributions from the estate of William Edward Leyburn, West Perth and
Huron East. The centre will soon be barrier-free, while it was fully accessible before, now it will
be completely accessible for someone on their own. Celebrating the improvements last week,
which are currently underway are, from left: Rena Spevack from the foundation’s grant review
committee, Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, vice-chair of the community centre committee
Paul Spittal and Bryan Vincent, chair of the Seaforth Community Centre fundraising
committee. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
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By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
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