The Brant County community services building in Paris soon may have a date with the wrecking ball.
County councilors recently recommended the closing and demolition of the building at 15 Curtis Ave. N. Their recommendation is expected to be approved at the March 22 county council meeting.
“It’s a hard building to work in – it’s cold and drafty and has an unusual floor plan that makes it difficult to accommodate staff,” Brant CAO Michael Bradley told the March 15 meeting of council’s administration and operations committee.
He said the building also is seen as an “impediment” to the nearby Cowan Community Health Hub, which opened last November.
“We believe that if the health hub is successful, we’re going to need additional parking space.”
The building, a former Sears catalog outlet, was purchased by the county in 2012 to house community services administration staff.
It costs about $21,000 a year to operate and maintain. The building requires about $25,000 a year worth of capital improvements costs over the next several years, councilors were told.
County officials assessed the building’s future, while reviewing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on municipal operations. The county, like many other municipalities and employers, adopted a work-from-home model to protect employees and prevent the spread of the virus.
Now that COVID-19 restrictions are easing, the county is adopting a hybrid model that enables employees working from home to book workspace in a county office when needed. The new model, called “hoteling” is already being used by other municipalities, including the City of Brantford, councilors were told.
Under the plan, the 12 employees who work in the community services building will either work from home or from another municipal location. The county has its main administrative office in Paris, a secondary office outside of Burford in Mount Vernon, and it leases space in Wincey Mills, in downtown Paris.
As a result of the work-from-home approach, the county moves from a pre-pandemic position of not having enough space for employees to have more space than needed, councilors were told.
That also has allowed the county to put the brakes on a new $18-million county administration building. Councilors, during 2022 budget deliberations, removed the project from the county’s five-year capital budget forecast.
“I think this is a silver lining on the COVID cloud,” Coun. John Bell said of the municipality’s need for less space for employees. “It nicely coincides with technology that we’re all getting more comfortable with.
“I think we’re finally catching up with private industry; this is where private industry was probably 10 years ago.”
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