After spending $1M, Kings County scraps plans for new office

Kings County council has voted to scrap a controversial plan to construct a new building to house municipal staff and council offices in Coldbrook, N.S.

On Tuesday night, council voted six to four not to award a request for proposal for the construction contract to build a new office building on a property along Coldbrook Village Park Drive, near Exit 14 of Highway 101.

"What we're doing here is taking a time out, we're going to have consultations with the public, we're going to have those consultations with the staff ... and we're going to have input from council," said Peter Muttart, mayor of the Municipality of the County of Kings.

Council may now have to restart the entire process of figuring out whether to build a new municipal building and where to locate it, according to Muttart.

Council wanted to construct a new municipal office because the building it currently shares with the Department of Justice was purchased by the province. The province wants the Justice Department to have full use of the building.

That made council feel like it had to rush to find a new building, said Muttart.

However, the province has said the municipal offices can stay in the downtown Kentville building for a few more years while figuring out where to move.

Bad design with no public consultation 

New Minas resident Pierre Clouthier was at Tuesday's council meeting. He opposed the plan to build a new complex in Coldbrook and applauds council's decision. 

"It was a bad design, and the public wasn't really consulted about the location and the design of it," he said. "We came close to squandering a lot of money," said Clouthier. 

He said the municipality either had to accept $1 million had been "wasted" on buying and preparing the land, or go ahead and spend another $6 million or more "on a building that was not fit for purpose." 

New building could include more than just offices

Prior to municipal elections this past October, the previous council had been working for two years on developing a plan to build a complex in Coldbrook.

The county spent about $500,000 to buy the property and invested another $500,000 to clear the land and make infrastructure improvements, such as laneways and sidewalks, in anticipation of the new complex, said Muttart.

"There were no efforts to make partnerships with potential new libraries, recreation centres, in order to come up with a public building that would be of some real use to the citizens of the municipality rather than just a row of offices," he said.

The new process for figuring out a new home for the county's municipal offices will begin right away.