The repair project at Kimberley Hall just keeps on growing and growing.
At its meeting on June 19, Grey Highlands council approved an additional $120,000 for repairs to the community hall/library facility after receiving a staff report that outlined that several more critical issues were found during work that has been ongoing at the building for the past several months. The additional $120,000 brings the total spent on the project to date to $269,000.
“With a project of this magnitude, we keep uncovering issues as we go along,” said Mike Botelho, manager of operations for the municipality. “We’re working our best to provide solutions in the most cost effective way.”
The historic Kimberley Hall has been closed to the public as repair work has been progressing the past several months. During the work more problems with the building were identified including:
- Exterior wall framing and assembly at west elevation, including the removal and replacement of all wooden cladding to allow for exterior access to stud and vertical LVL support.
- Interior mezzanine framing at west elevation.
- Timber header above main entrance.
- "Tall wall" framing.
Staff estimated that this additional work will cost $60,000, but requested council approve an additional $60,000 ($120,000 total) to ensure that if more deficiencies are found during these repairs staff won’t have to come back to council for permission to proceed, which would delay the project.
Work already completed at Kimberley Hall includes:
- Building envelope study.
- Foundation test pits: completed at west elevation.
- Structural engineering report.
- Engineered vertical and lateral shoring.
- Repair rotted studs and sill plate.
- Reinforced concrete curb for sill plate to rest on.
- Abandoned tanks.
Work underway now includes:
- Reinstallation of the brick facade.
- Concrete pad.
- Aluminum fascia/frieze board.
- Frost protected pad.
- Relocation of community memorial nameplate.
Staff explained to council that in normal circumstances the municipality would have a full structural engineering report completed before beginning work on a project like Kimberley Hall. However, in this situation the municipality was responding to an emergency situation at the building. The front brick facade on the building was in danger of collapsing.
“This was a bit of a unique situation,” said CAO Karen Govan. “The brick work came to us suddenly. It was an emergency repair due to public safety. That resulted in us having to do blind work and going into this and uncovering as we went.”
The funding for the additional work will come out of the municipality’s asset management reserve, which has a balance of more than $3.3 million.
Jamie Barill, of Barill Engineering, attended the meeting and outlined some of the issues the building is facing. Barill said Kimberley Hall was built in the 1880s and was not originally a masonry building. She said cladding was added in the early 1900s. She said the brick ties were fastened with a single wythe masonry, which is very unusual. Multi-wythe provides more strength.
A single-wythe refers to a single layer of bricks, mutli-wythe masonry involves more than one layer of brick or other type of stone and tends to add more structure to a building.
She said the masonry wythes have likely rotted out and they will be using test holes to determine what is needed. She also noted that there are moisture issues and the building will likely need roof repairs.
“It is very much a unique project,” said Barill. “It’s not something we come across often.”
Council unanimously approved the extra funding requested by staff.
“This is critical work. I don’t think anybody is doubting that. This is what you need to do,” said Coun. Nadia Dubyk.
Mayor Paul McQueen said it made sense to approve the additional $120,000 all at once to ensure the work was completed in a timely fashion.
“If you have contractors on site you can’t stop and take a month off and then carry on. You have to keep going,” he said.
Coun. Joel Loughead said he has received many questions from the public about when the building will be open.
Botelho said the timeline to complete the work to remedy the recently identified issues is four weeks.
“It’s a very important hall and it has a lot of historic value for sure,” said McQueen.
