The Gummer Bummer
It should please City Hall to know that
they’re not the only ones that can’t open a building on time downtown. Skyline,
the company behind the preservation and reconstruction of the Gummer Building site,
has said that they will miss their February 2009 deadline for opening the new
commercial/office building, which is being integrated into the surviving visage
of the heritage site. The faltering economy and the coming winter were cited as
two reasons why the building won’t be completed, but no final completion date
was given by the contractors.
In with the new; what with the
old?
While the city and its recently hired
replacement contractors, Alberici Constructors Ltd.,
work with all due hast to open the new City Administration building sometime early in
the New Year, there is a forgotten component to this sad affair: the old City
Hall. The original plan was to turn the current building at 59 Carden St. into a new courthouse following the
completion and move into the new building, but now those plans are in limbo as
the final tab for constructing the new city HQ hasn’t come in yet. Currently
Alberici is being paid by the hour, at least until the full extent of what
needs to be done to finish the new Hall has been tabulated. There’s also the
small matter of the liens against the city saying that Guelph owes $12 million
to old contractor Urbacon Buildings Corp, and possibly another $9.6 million in
back pay to subcontractors. Lois Payne, the director of corporate services,
says that the city will open competitive bidding process for the contract to
transform the current City Hall.
Provincial
cash for city streets, et al
Provincial
surpluses have yielded $1.1 billion in extra cash and the Ontario government is spreading that around, with
$11 million being given to Guelph for various infrastructure projects. The
biggest piece of that money, $4 million, is being directed towards four big
road projects as well as road repairs deferred because of an increase in the price
of asphalt. The next biggest earmark is $1.1 million for to install an optical sort unit at the recycling facility, which will
sort plastics more efficiently. Nearly $1 million more will go to improvements
to parking at the Guelph Youth Music Centre; $810,000 will be directed towards renovations
for the new, permanent homeless youth shelter on Norfolk; and the rest will be
dispersed to improvements in Sleeman Centre, parks and recreation facilities,
and storm water management projects. “This funding is great news” for the city,
Mayor Karen Farbridge said in a press release. “It allows us to make
much-needed and, in many cases, long-awaited investments in infrastructure for
our community.”
State of the City: good, could be
better
Now halfway through her mandate, Mayor
Karen Farbridge delivered a State of the City address at a breakfast meeting
hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. The presentation highlighted the
City’s progress so far, as well as the priorities and plans for the next two
years. The three main topics of the presentation were: municipal governance,
including a principle-based governance framework that serves as a yardstick for
the City’s progress; economic and financial performance indicators, which show
how the City stacks up to other communities in areas such as taxation and jobs;
and a new economic development strategy to respond to current economic
challenges.
Farbridge pointed out that only 10 to 20
per cent of City resources available for strategic projects and emphasized the
importance of Council’s rigorous priority-setting process. “Our principles
inform our priorities,” she said, “And our priorities drive our progress.”
Addressing the global economic crisis, Farbridge said that Guelph is in good
shape to weather the storm with 59 jobs for every 100 people in the city.
Farbridge also added that over the past year, the City has stabilized its debt
and increased its reserves. The local tax burden for a residential bungalow is
the lowest among a group of 10 comparable communities, while the tax burdens
for the neighbourhood shopping, office, and industrial categories rank at about
the middle of the group.
The full speech is available on the City of
Guelph website, but if you’d rather hear it in person, Farbridge will be
delivering it at a free event put on by the Guelph Civic League in their new
office at 10 Carden St. on December 13th at 10:30 am.
