Fairmount Home, Parham Ambulance Base, Top List Of County Buildings Needing Repairs

Jeff Green | May 29, 2024

Frontenac County Council members found one of the staff reports that they received at their last meeting (May 15) a bit of a challenge.

The report in question was a building condition assessment of all major county assets, including ambulance bases and Fairmount Home. The county administrative offices, which are attached to Fairmount Home, but have been the subject of a renovation for the past two years, were not included in the assessment.

The main conclusions in the report, that Fairmount Home is in “fair” shape, and the Parham Base is in “poor” shape, was clear enough.

But the detail about all of the issues in all of the buildings, when they need to be addressed, and how much each issue could cost (in 2024 dollars), was included in an appendix.

The appendix is an excel spreadsheet that is 40 pages long, with 15 items to a page, with a point size in the single digits unless it is blown up so much that the far end of the column, where the price is located, does not appear on a computer screen.

For Fairmount Home, which takes up 22 of the 40 pages in the document, there are 60 items, identified for repair everywhere from 2024 to 2048, at prices ranging from $1,000 (to remove ‘poor’ electrical equipment this year) to $900,000 (for a new roof in 2048 to replace what is currently a ‘very good’ roof).

North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty sees the document as a factor in a debate over the future of the Fairmount Home, a major item up for debate by this council.

Council received a report late last year on potential upgrades to Fairmount Home, to turn it into a 160-bed facility up to the most current standards, which recommended a new build at a cost of $100 million.

Fairmount was upgraded to a ‘Class A’ 128 bed facility in 2004.

Lichty said the report “is kind of hard to look at, because the eyes aren’t what they used to be, and the way it lays out the assessments, it is very difficult to interpret, but we have the software to look at this from year to year to come up with a date when this building should be replaced, maybe in 2044 or 2045. It is a very good start, as we consider the future of Fairmount.

Warden Frances Smith just found the report confusing.

“I started to look at all the items,” said Warden Frances Smith, “and came to the conclusion that somebody has to do an analysis of this, aside from me.”

Treasurer Alex Lemieux apologised for the size of type and the length of each column in the report, saying it was even more unwieldy when he first received it.

“We managed to bring it down from 80 rows wide, but we can provide a more readable version for Council,” he said. “The information in this report will be used in the development of a capital replacement plan. We will prioritise all the items, then put forward a plan about what we will replace and when, for Council to look at,” he said.

“I would like a paper copy, that's readable,” said Frances Smith.

“And maybe a summation,” added Deputy Warden Vandewal.

“I think this is very helpful, and my cheaters worked pretty well so I could read it. I think we need to set some priorities, and electrical and plumbing are the ones that we cannot put off. Others can wait a little while.”

“I think, for me, we start by looking at the five years, and go on from there. I think this was the start that we asked for, and now we can look forward,” said Vandewal.