St-Lazare town hall construction behind schedule but on budget: mayor

Construction delays have pushed back the completion date for StLazare’s new town hall, but Mayor Robert Grimaudo assures the project’s costs remains within its $10million budget.

The new town hall was originally supposed to be ready in June, but Grimaudo said the building won’t be move-in ready until mid-July. He said several factors are behind the delay, including weather and unforeseen challenges to do with the roof’s complex structure.

The delay affects 18 employees in the urban planning, finance and environment departments who are working from rented offices on St-Angélique Road. The lease expires June 1, but the mayor said the town doesn’t intend to spend any additional money on rent. Instead, affected staff will move into a temporary workspace within the community centre until the new offices are ready. Community activities will be relocated temporarily to other venues, such as school gymnasiums.

With the new facility, Grimaudo said it will be the first time in 20

years that all the town’s administrative employees will be working under the same roof. The old town hall, a converted 1950s schoolhouse, was not big enough to accommodate all staff and it was demolished to make way for the new construction. The mayor said it also didn’t meet current safety codes and lacked emergency exits on the lower level. The town used to spend about $200,000 per year on rented office space.

Despite the delay, Grimaudo said the new town hall is on-track, and he is looking forward to moving in soon.

“I can’t wait. But it’s not for me that I can’t wait, it’s for the employees,” he said. “We don’t build a town hall for the politicians. The administration, they are forever.”

The new town hall building will also include community meeting space for local non-profits and a chamber for hosting monthly council meetings, which were previously held at the community centre.

After reviewing 11 bids last year, St-Lazare awarded the town hall contract to Lavacon Construction Inc. which had submitted the lowest conforming bid at $8.9 million.