All I Know About The Hydro Building

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Here's The Deal":

Speaking of Waste , can you fill us in on what’s going on over at the old Hydro Building, looks desolate as hell , is there some kind of top secret military think tank happening over there , have they constructed a subterranean entrance into the place , Has the Town canceled the Deal ? fill us in Please

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It's still empty. Desolate. Nothing appears to be going on. It's not an old building.

This time last year, the town was using it. We were storing archives and  stuff there..

The Parks Department was using it as a workshop. They built parts for a gazebo there in the winter,
 brought it out  and erected it in the Spring. Somebody asked me how come you spent all that money. We didn't.The Parks Department built it.

It was vacated by Power Stream  months after they signed a  year's lease with no penalty clause. They left with one month's notice.We had a legal department then too.

It was built by Aurora Hydro when they outgrew their space on Mosely Street. It  became an asset of the new utility when the Province decided all utilities should be privatised.

When the town  sold the utility  to Power Stream, the property  housed twenty-seven employees with a huge workshop, garage and a five acre yard ,

Property  assessment was  worth $69.Ks a year to the town.

I thought it should  be sold to bring in revenue, replace twenty-seven jobs lost and realise millions from  the sale.

Nigel Keane thought it should be a teen centre. Tim Jones agreed  and it  became an election issue.

Neither of them were elected  and in the new term no decision was  made until an opportunity presented to ingratiate the Mayor with the militia crowd.

When the announcement was made about the lease with the militia, the Mayor remarked . "Now the kiddies will have a place" I assumed she meant the army cadets.That was in September of 2010.

The rent was  $139Ks a year. We  were not told we would be spending in excess of $200Ks to make it ready for the militia nor that we would be responsible for the building's maintenance. 

When I asked in  March ,during budget discussions. what column the rental revenue would show,  We were informed there hadn't been any until February 1st.

I heard afterwards the former Mayor had amended the lease, after  the Minister was supposed to have  signed it  and after the election, when she was defeated.

The lease was put  forward  until February 2011. two months after the new council took office.

Now  a consultant is being paid to examine  space needs of  works department and parks department with a view to spending  twelve million dollars on a new facility.

We will have less than seventy thousand people at build-out   as opposed to the current fifty-four thousand ,but never mind, we are currently adding  staff complement and space to accommodate them  as if there is no tomorrow.

The militia will have a building for "the kiddies" to  play in  which would have accommodated the Leisure Services Department; offices, board room,  parking, landscaping plus an electrically charged security fence around the yard.