Community office or town hall? Three Rivers still not sure

The eastern P.E.I. community of Three Rivers is making progress on creating a new municipal office following a fire, but isn't sure if it's going to be the new town hall.

The town has decided to build on the site of the old Montague Town Hall, which burned in 2018.

"We looked at other possibilities," said Mayor Ed MacAulay.

"At the end of the day the best site was on the land which we already owned, right on the former town hall of Montague site. So it will be a municipal office and maybe eventually a town hall."

Since the fire, Montague has become part of the amalgamated community of Three Rivers, and that makes declaring a new site for a town hall more difficult than it might have been otherwise. The amalgamation included some communities — such as Cardigan and Georgetown — with long histories and a lot of civic pride. Some residents there are vying to have the town hall in their neighbourhoods.

So for now, MacAulay said, the building is a municipal office. MacAulay confesses he has been putting off deciding whether the building will be the town hall.

"We've been kind of holding off because we have had a lot of other things to do, to work on. It didn't seem to be a large priority, but I'm sure there's people that would debate me on that," he said.

"Everything takes time."

The new building is still in the early design stages. The town has budgeted $1 million for it. About 90 per cent of that will be covered by insurance on the old town hall.

MacAulay hopes to see ground broken on the project before the end of this year.

More from CBC P.E.I.