Keep administration building costs in line

One wonders how from June to August of this year the cost of Haldimand County’s proposed new administration building could have ballooned from $15 million to $30 million.

Reading between the lines, a partial explanation can be inferred. As initially proposed in November 2015, the cost of the building was to be offset by selling the land on which the current administration building and the adjoining county museum are located - 15 acres of serviced, waterfront land.

Following an explosion of public opposition to the idea of selling this magnificent public parkland to a condominium developer, Haldimand County Council backed down and passed a motion in December 2016 to keep the land in public ownership. However, they did nothing to deal with the enormous hole this created in the funding for their new building.

Citizens who noticed the hole asked both staff and Council how big it was, but neither has been willing to make the figure public, or even to admit that there is such a figure. Instead, they forged ahead with their grandiose plan, hiring an architect in January 2017 for $800,000 and planning to award a contract for construction early in 2018. How can they do this? It’s easy: 100 per cent debt financing, despite rising interest rates.

Yet both Mayor Ken Hewitt and chief administrative Officer Don Boyle bristle at any suggestion that their process is not transparent or that their management is not financially savvy. David McClung, Cayuga