Harbour Grace council decides to stay put

By Craig Westcott
December 1, 2023 Edition

Harbour Grace council has backed away from the idea of moving its operations to the more modern Danny Cleary Community Centre and will instead focus on fixing up the old Town Hall at 112 Water Street.

Finance committee chairperson Gordon Stone reminded his colleagues last week that he had recommended a couple of meetings back that council set up a committee to consider such a move.

“We’ve had a change of mind on the approach of that as a council,” Stone said. 

With that he moved that council rescind the motion to strike a committee. It carried unanimously.

“Further to that, we’ve decided that there is some immediate need regarding this building to improve the heat efficiency and other things, and we made that a priority,” Stone said. 

Stone then moved that council empower Town Manager Amy Dwyer to “begin the work associated with replacing the windows, doors, and AC heating unit so as to make the building more heat efficient and that council use Gas Tax funds to pay for the renovations.”

Like other municipalities, Harbour Grace gets a portion of the tax the federal government collects on gasoline sales across the country and redirects to towns and cities for capital works projects. While the funding is federal, any projects undertaken by the towns must first get approval from the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs.

Harbour Grace council has been operating out of the building at 112 Water Street since 2015. Before that, the building served as a bank, and council operated from 104 Water Street. It left that building because of accessibility problems.

Stone noted there are a lot of subsidies available now from other levels of government for projects that improve heat efficiency, and his committee will also look for grants and other financial incentives that may be available.

Stone’s motion carried unanimously.