The Old Millbrook School is a municipally owned building dating from 1889o and is home to several community organizations including the Millbrook Library, Community Policing, Food Share, the Family Centre, and the seasonal Farmers’ Market. Given the age and state of repair of the building, the township is regularly faced with capital projects to maintain it in a safe and operational state of repair. In recent years the facility has suffered damage due to a leaking flat roof located on the west side of the building above the central staircase, for which Council has authorized $122,000 for repairs in the 2016 Capital Budget. To secure services to address these needs, staff developed a Request For Proposal in which each component of the remedial work was segmented in order to determine the cost of each item so staff could proceed with the most pressing and most affordable items in priority.
The RFP included a wide range of interior and exterior repairs, but the cost for all items received in the bids exceeded the funds allocated in this year’s budget. After a review of the exterior brick wall to ensure it was safe, staff recommended Council proceed with the interior repairs, including wall and ceiling repairs in a number of rooms, the replacement of stairs in the central stairwell and the remediation of mold contamination in the west basement storage room, a window replacement and weather stripping with Mekker Construction, whose bid met the requirements in the RFP including budget and timeline. The total expenditure for the approved work amounts to $45,809.07 including HST.
Exterior repairs including the removal and rebuilding the outside stairwell wall, the installation of a rubber membrane under the cement caps at the top of the wall, and scraping, spot priming, and painting of the three roof vents were deferred until the 2017 budget. The 2016 Capital Budget includes an allocation of $122,000.00 for various repairs to the Old Millbrook School and on staff recommendations, Council agreed that the remaining balance of $78,747.51 in that budget line be carried forward to the 2017 Capital Budget and that a new RFP be drafted for the remedial work on the west wall.
Upon approval of these expenditures, Mayor McFadden asked staff to prepare a report outlining the amount of money spent on capital repairs and maintenance in recent years along with a timeline of those expenditures to provide Council with a clear idea of the amount of capital this community asset has absorbed to remain operational. KG
