By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA Ranges Council may have a new, fully-refurbished $28 million office by 2020, with councillors endorsing the first stages of a “complete redevelopment” at a recent meeting.
On Tuesday 26 April, Yarra Ranges councillors voted to endorse a complete redevelopment of the council’s Anderson Street offices, which are currently in a state of disrepair.
The councillors also voted to approve funding and borrowing to undertake the complete redevelopment, which would see the offices completely refurbished, with another two-level building constructed and old portable buildings removed.
In a media tour of the council offices before the council meeting, project director Scott Hodges showed examples of the building in a state of disrepair, with water damage, out-dated systems and asbestos sheeting – which, after termite damage in recent years, saved CEO Glenn Patterson from falling through the floor of his office.
“You have a three-stage sub-floor, which is one, two, then your timber floorboards, then asbestos tiles on top – all of that had been eaten below,” Mr Hodges said.
“Luckily, that gave the integrity that he didn’t fall through his floor.”
He said the office buildings did not have safety switches, or temperature control from hot water taps, meaning employees were at risk of electrocution or scalding, and that steel beams supporting the structure have not been fire-protected.
“If they melt, the whole house of cards falls down,” he said.
The problem that the council faces is that a single repair triggers a domino-effect of urgent works across the whole building.
“We don’t have safety switches, we can’t add to our boards – they are out of date, they have asbestos, they have insufficient capacity to support any upgrade,” he said.
“Therefore, if you replace the electrics, or if you’re trying to replace the air conditioning – which is well past its use by date – you would need to upgrade your electrical boards.
“If you upgrade your electrical boards, you also need to do your fire systems … so you start to get this percentage trigger, that pushes us over the 25 or 50 per cent in the building code, which means you’ve got to upgrade the full building.”
Mr Hodges said that council was required to make their buildings compliant, and that the minimum cost of getting the current building up-to-scratch was $6.5 million – before GST.
But Yarra Ranges mayor Jason Callanan said that would be a “band-aid” solution, with the cost of the full $28 million rebuild to be faced by council again in coming years.
A feasibility study was green-lit by council in August last year, with an estimated cost of $420,000 – the final document cost council $117,000, with the remainder of the money to be used on the rest of the project.
Mr Hodges said that, if approved, the council aimed to have the project finished by 2020, moving staff around as the building was gutted and refurbished in stages.
Addressing concerns about the cost of the refurbishment, Mr Hodges said the works would be “modest and humble,” and the resulting building would last for the coming 60 years.
“It’s never going to be a good time to bring this up, ever … we’re just going to have to bite the bullet,” Cr Callanan said.
At the meeting, Cr Callanan moved an alternate recommendation, which will see the feasibility study released to the public on the council’s website, and at its offices and community link offices.
Reports will be presented to the council for town planning in early 2017, with the project set to go to tender in late 2017.
