The Town of South Bruce Peninsula will be drafting up a lease agreement to share its new town hall with the local family health team.
The South Bruce Peninsula Family Health Organization (SBPFHO) has been looking for a new home and would like to move into the unused space in the new Town Hall being built in the old Wiarton Foodland.
Scheduled to be completed over the winter, the new Town Hall will have space to accommodate SBPFHO and its 14 additional allied health professionals. The proposal would use about 8,000 square feet of the building.
SBPFHO brought a delegation to council last month and CAO Bill Jones said the presentation was well received.
"The Family Health Organization has shown a signficant and keen interest in being a tenant in this new facility for some time so it was nice when it came to the table and they could make their wishes known publicly," he said. "I don't believe any staff have received anything negative regarding this as a consideration. I think it's all good news and it's great for the future of health care in South Bruce Peninsula."
Jones noted that they'll be working with the physicians on the design of the new space, while still holding space to incorporate public washrooms with access from both inside and outside the building.
Staff estimate the annual lease requirement would be around $205,000, and that the SBPFHO could fund at a minimum about $130,000. The report to council also suggested ways that the funding gap could be made up, but those discussions won't be had until farther down the line.
The next step is bringing back a formalized construction budget and draft lease agreement to council at a later date.
