On Air Now

John Tesh

7:00pm - 1:00am

  • 519-537-1047

Now Playing

County Going Ahead with Works Yard Expansion

The City may not like it, but the County is going forward with their works yard expansion on County Road 30. The City appealed the Official Plan Amendment necessary to connect the property to the Woodstock Wastewater System but Director of Public Works Rob Walton says the County has come up with a scaled down project despite the Ontario Municipal Board appeal. "The two bays are not being added onto the north end of the existing building and we're not putting any wash facilities in for the trucks. The wash facilities are what had the big impact on the sewage flows so that's why we can consider doing a much smaller septic system which would accommodate the use which is just basically the internal renovations of the building." Walton says the internal renovations include areas to accommodate facilities operations, construction of employee change rooms and lunch room,insulating walls and roof and constructing a file storage area. The cost estimate for the reduced scope project is $950,000, that's $100,000 less than the cost of the full project. While the City did file an appeal they have offered up property on Tecumseh street, free of charge to the County if they retire their expansion plans. County Council decided today to go ahead with a scaled down version of their plans instead of taking the City's offer. Woodstock Mayor Pat Sobeski says he's having a hard time understanding the logic and rationale of the County. "The County said well we're going ahead and building three quarters of what we want and if we don't win the OMB hearing , well then we will have to find another location to put the other services we want out there so in essence the County is gambling $900,000 on a facility that they acknowledge will not meeting their future needs." Walton says should the OMB hearing not favour the County they will simply apply for an upgraded septic system instead of connecting to City's waste water system.

More from Local News

Weather

Recently Played