A rendering of the project. (Town of Penhold)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

$5.5 MILLION DEBENTURE

Penhold public service building development gets final funding approval

Jul 9, 2024 | 12:17 PM

Penhold’s town council has passed second and third reading of a debenture bylaw allowing them to borrow $5.5 million to fund a new combined public services and fire hall building after a public hearing on July 8.

The estimated total project cost is $9.5 million, with $4 million coming from the Town’s capital reserves. Mayor Mike Yargeau said there are currently no provincial grants available for this type of project, but they will continue to look into other funding opportunities.

Now that the borrowing bylaw has been passed, the Town can put the project up for tender and begin getting more accurate estimates for the project cost, as well as concrete banking information from lenders, he said.

The bylaw stipulates the borrowed funds must be paid off within 30 years, and includes plans to repay the debt by raising municipal taxes in the coming years. As of December 31, 2023, the Town’s outstanding debt was $2,412,146.

About 18 people showed up to share their thoughts at the public hearing, a crowd that Yargeau says was fairly evenly split in support or concern for the bylaw.

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”Council would have all agreed that the concerns that had been addressed, or brought forward to council or administration, we’ve been able to answer all of those concerns,” he explained. “There was really nothing new brought forward at the public hearing that would require us to rethink where we’re trying to head.”

The current public works building and the fire hall have been in use since 1976, when the Town’s population was only about 560 residents.

“We are currently, well, when we have our census finalized, we’ll probably be right around 4000. At the end of the day, we’ve grown out of both facilities,” Yargeau said.

The age of the buildings has also created safety concerns and ventilation issues for staff, he said. By the time the new building is completed, the existing ones will have been in operation for about 50 years.

“We’re just a growing community that needs these facilities to continue to grow and continue to serve our residents,” said Yargeau.

It is hard to say until a contractor is finalized, but he hopes to see construction begin by the end of 2024, or by Q1 in 2025 at the latest. The facility will be located about half a mile north of the Penhold Regional Multiplex, and is expected to have a lifetime use of 50 years or more.

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