Published April 8, 2024

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Employees and visitors to the town hall in Bedford Township will have a lot more space to move around this time next year, thanks to a provincial government grant allowing for the construction of a new town hall and municipal garage.

“This financial assistance is excellent news for Bedford Township. I am convinced that this new, more modern municipal office will provide a better adapted work environment in addition to contributing to the well-being of staff. In addition, the community space and the city council room will benefit the entire population,” said Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest at the funding announcement on April 2.

The $2.15-million grant from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs will cover the bulk of the project; the remaining $600,000 will be covered by the proceeds from a recent sale of town land, Mayor Gilles St-Jean told the BCN. “There will be no increase to the tax bill this year or next,” he said. “By the time it’s built, it will be already paid for.”

The new building will be built on vacant town-owned land adjacent to the current town hall, which will be repurposed as the garage. In addition to larger offices for town staff, it will contain the town archives, an expanded council room, a covered porch, a community kitchen and showers; there will be an adjacent parking lot with two charging stations for electric vehicles. A large generator will keep it running when the power goes out, so it can double as an emergency warming centre. 

“We’ve been working on this for many years, but there was never a subsidy program we were eligible for until now,” St-Jean said. “All of the other programs we were hoping to apply for, [the applicant] needed to be in debt, and we weren’t. We’ve been asking for this for a long time.” Several years ago, he said, the town bought an old house and had it torn down to clear land for the project.

St-Jean said a larger town hall was needed to accommodate the growing number of staff members in the town of 658 people and allow more people to comfortably attend council meetings. “For years, we had one director general who handled everything; now we have two people and that doesn’t work. We need to hire an assistant, but we haven’t gotten there yet – the receptionist and the director general share one office and the building inspector works out of the council room. When we get an assistant director general, we have no place to put their office,” he said. He noted that the new council chamber would seat up to 80 people, up from the current 20, and include a separate room for in-camera sessions, so that citizens attending council meetings would no longer have to wait outside during in-camera deliberations.

St-Jean said construction on the new town hall began last week, and completion is expected as early as December 2024.

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