Kingsville town council has approved spending $46,620 to retain the services of Architecttura Inc.
The architectural firm will prepare a report on the feasibility of relocating the town's Ontario Provincial Police detachment to the town hall building located at 2021 Division Road North.
A review, completed two years ago, stated the current OPP facility at 41 Division Street South was aging and required significant investment to repair to meet the needs of the OPP.
The town's Chief Administrative Officer, John Norton, said working with the OPP has been an extensive process in terms of red tape and security measures.
He said Architecttura has experience with designing OPP facilities and the security clearances the OPP requires.
"They have a lot of expectations and requirements, some of it makes a lot of sense because of course if they're building cells, and various aspects of a facility that are required for modern policing, we understand that it has to meet certain standards." Norton said.
Coun. Thomas Neufeld was supportive of the report and said the current OPP facility was retrofitted from a previous town hall building.
"I can only assume that moving into current will be adequate at best. Short of, I don't know, how many millions to retrofit. It is bigger, I'll give it that, so maybe it's not going to be that bad. I'm interested to see what they say, but we're kind of doing the same thing here, so I really don't know what they're going to come up with," Neufeld said.
The report to council stated how town hall is operating beyond its practical capacity with offices designed for one worker now are being shared by two or even three workers.
The former council chambers room now is occupied by up to a dozen staff, and council meetings are now held outside town hall at the Unico building.
The report said the capacity issues are also impacting the town’s ability to attract and retain staff and maintain staff morale.
Architecttura's assessment will also provide the town a functional space program and floor plan.
Staff said relocating the OPP will allow the town to sell the current OPP facility and use the funds to make the needed changes at town hall.
Norton said back in May the town submitted a formal expression of interest to purchase the former Kingsville High School, which was previously identified as a potential for new municipal facilities.
"We have heard from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, but, we have not heard back yet from the Ministry of Education who need to contact us to tell us their decision," Norton said.
The town has $1.1 million saved in a reserve account for the potential construction of a new OPP facility. However, that amount is not sufficient to build a new facility at this time.