New staff office and meeting room included in planned renovation at Perth South township office

The preliminary design drawing for planned renovations to the Perth South township office interior set to begin later this year.

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Perth South council recently got its first look at the preliminary design drawings for planned renovations inside the township municipal office building set to begin later this year.

At council’s Oct. 7 meeting, chief building official Martin Feeney presented the draft design for councillors’ input and told them the drawings were nearly finalized and ready to put out for requests for proposals (RFP).

“The renovation to the front foyer and reception area was approved as a capital project for 2025,” Feeney said. “I’ve included the preliminary drawing for this project. … Once the initial drawings are fine-tuned and we’re satisfied with the way it looks, we’ll go out for an RFP. We’re hoping to get that project started either in late fall or early winter this year.”

According to Feeney’s report to council, now that the township is transitioning away from a paper-based records-storage system, the renovations are intended to repurpose space within the municipal office building that was once used for the storage of paper documents into two new spaces within the reception area: a new staff office in the front foyer and a meeting room in the area currently used for file storage adjacent to the general office.

Included in the scope of this project is the replacement of ceramic tiles and carpeting with vinyl-plank flooring, the installation of new electrical and data infrastructure, the removal of some partition walls, the installation of new acoustical ceiling tiles in the new meeting room and office, the painting of walls, doors and trim, and the purchase of office furniture for the new spaces. The project was budgeted at $100,000 for this year.

“Council, if you have any preferences to expand the scope of the work or if you wanted any other painting done or anything like that, now would be the time to do it before we send it out for RFP and come back with the final scope of the project,” Feeney said. “So, if council wants anything done with council chambers or anything like that, I’m just putting that out there.”

While councillors asked a few logistical and clarifying questions, they did not make any recommendations to change the scope of the planned renovations.

Feeney told council he expects the project to take between two and a half to three months to complete, and there would be provisions made that would allow the office to remain open and staff to continue working during the project’s duration.