POWASSAN-The recently refurbished kitchen at the Sportsplex has left the municipality with egg on its face and a compliance order on its plate.
No building permit has ever been issued for the renovations, a fact that became public when Powassan fire chief Bill Cox requested to see the document in order to confirm the status of required fire separations.
Councillor Peter McIsaac calls the situation “an embarrassment for the municipality,” and is determined to find out who dropped the ball. During the March 2 council meeting he presented a resolution calling for municipal staff to prepare “individual reports on their activities and knowledge regarding this permit. It’s no secret in the community that we don’t have a building permit for our own work,” he said. “We have to be transparent about this, and move forward to correct this problem.”
The kitchen renovations were originally undertaken by the former-Sportsplex Committee in place under a joint agreement between then Sportsplex partners, the Municipality of Powassan and the Township of Nipissing. “That committee applied for a Trillium Grant of $25,000 to redo the kitchen, but by the time the grant was announced, that partnership had ended and the new municipal recreation committee was in place,” said McIsaac. “The work went forward, and I think we all just assumed the paperwork had been previously put in place.”
Following Cox’s inspection, an order to comply was issued to the municipality by its building department last December. “That order simply stated that a building permit for the work done (last summer) be obtained prior to any further use of the kitchen,” McIsaac said. At that time a meeting was held between building officials and municipal staff “and I was told that the steps were laid out on what was required to correct the situation. I had assumed that this issue would be put to bed then.”
After learning last month that a building permit had still not been issued, McIsaac said he “didn’t intend to be, or put the municipality, in contravention of the order to comply,” and posted notices at the Sportsplex closing the kitchen from any further use.
As the municipality acted as the prime contractor for the renovations, it must now produce a drawings of both the original and new kitchen and inspection and engineering certificates. The Sportsplex falls under the designation of a public assembly building, and the recently installed plumbing and certain other materials used in the redesign do not meet the required codes. “Before that can be replaced, drawings must be supplied for review and acceptance to our building officials,” said McIsaac, who added that “according to the Chief Bulding Official (CBO) municipal staff were aware that a permit was required for the Sportsplex in the spring of 2009.”
Deputy-clerk Nicky Kunkle told council last week that a building permit had been applied for at that time, “but it couldn’t be issued until we had the (engineer’s) drawings.” It now appears those drawings were never submitted, and council is looking at $9,000 to have them completed. McIsaac told council, “we need to fix this as soon as possible. As a municipality we ask our CBO to stick to the letter of the law, and now the municipality has failed to do so. I want staff to tell us what was done, what wasn’t done and outline everyone’s role in this. I’m getting asked a lot of question and we have to set a precedent so this never happens again.”