DONNYBROOK and Balingup locals pushed for a new feasibility study to be commissioned into a new, stand alone administration centre at a Special Electors Meeting on Wednesday.
Questions from the floor at the meeting focused on the cost effectiveness of specific building materials, whether the costs quoted in previous studies were still applicable and how the project could be undertaken to create an attractive civic area.
Audience member John Small suggested there had been some loading in the original concept plans, which was based on $4,000 per square metre. “The going rate is $3,000 per square metre,” he said.
Shire President Steve Dilley said the cost estimated when the concept plans were made was $4-6million, and the cost of another detailed concept plan was $20,000.
“We have to live within our means,” he said.
Mr Small replied that those estimates had been done during the building boom. “It’s worth investing in it again, to tweak it to the current economic environment,” he said.
“If you build a new building and then shift, you can continue to function, and then you have a facility you can sell or rent,” Mr Small said.
Cr Dilley said if money were no object, that would be terrific.
Two people commented that concrete tilt panel buildings were very cost-effective, and it was possible to bring projects to completion for far less cost using them.
One audience member asked Council to keep when planning the new facility that in 1990, Donnybrook had been voted the ugliest town.
Audience member Basil Carr, who introduced himself as an architect, said the present Shire building was an outdated rabbit warren.
“This design offers a similar rabbit warren,” he said.
He said the plan to install the council chamber in the old church would create a narrow, awkward and demeaning entrance.
“This building has many through the wall cracks and structural problems that will require a stone by stone rebuild,” he said.
“The problem with having the entry at the back is it turns its back on Bentley Street.”
Mr Carr said the project should be trying to build on existing assets, having entrances to the Council Chamber and existing offices along Bentley Street, along with landscaping to tie the whole area in visually with the Memorial Hall.
“This would give a broad presence on Bentley Street, and not the industrial nightmare of Collins Street,” he said.
“It all starts to work together as a civic centre of town.”
Mr Carr’s speech was greeted with applause around the room.
Cr Dilley thanked Peter Gubler for petitioning the meeting, as it gave Councillors an opportunity to hear the views of a larger number of ratepayers than the 19 written submissions Council received.
“The clear message that I got from those ratepayers in attendance was that they were not happy about spending $2m on another extension and renovation of the current administration centre,” he said.
“The real game changer however was that they would prefer a new building that the community could be proud of and would be prepared to pay for the additional cost of a well designed building after appropriate community consultation.
“For the last 25 years Council has on a number of occasions considered extensions versus a new building and has always chosen the extension option to minimise the cost for ratepayers. Overall I thought it was a very positive meeting,” he said.
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At the beginning of the meeting, Cr Dilley addressed each point raised in a petition signed by 180 people that called for the meeting to be held.
The petition called for Shire to halt any further work on progressing the project, and explain why it was going ahead despite being rejected in 90 per cent of public submissions, amongst other questions.
Cr Dilley opened the meeting by providing information about and answers to each point on the petition, as well as some background on why the upgrades were needed.
He said Council had received 19 submissions on the upgrades, but had also taken into account the views of people who worked in the building and were directly affected by the upgrades, expert advice and cost implications.
In response to the petition’s point of the upgrade being similar in design to the existing office, he showed how the upgrade would increase space and infrastructure, including increases from 11 offices to 12, a two desk reception to a three desk reception, and eight desks in an open plan area to 28 desks.
He said the Council Chambers would increase from 93sqm to 130sqm, and become a multi-purpose space.
In reply to the petition’s point that the Building Audit Report by Tungsten Group commissioned in 2005 by the Shire suggested it was not feasible to effectively modify the building again, Cr Dilley said the problems cited in the report included the condition of the roof, which had been dealt with already, and different floor levels, which could be dealt with in the upgrade.
He said the estimated cost of the new building was $4.6million, while the budget for the project was capped at $2million.
“We have to compromise between cost and design,” he said.
The petition also questioned why the possibility of housing Works and Services staff at the Sandhill’s Road engineering depot was dismissed.
“Works and Services staff need to interact with the public. Two separate sites would be inefficient and confusing,” Mr Dilley said.
The final question on the petition called for an explanation as to why submissions asking for a comparative study on a completely new facility were dismissed.
Cr Dilley said this was undertaken as part of a 2013 feasibility study, resulting in a quote of $4-6million for a new facility.
“We didn’t want to impost that cost on ratepayers,” he said. “A new building would mean a much bigger loan.”
