Niverville’s town council met on April 16 for a regularly scheduled public meeting, with all members of council in attendance.
The first item on the agenda was a request by Prairie Select, an exterior building products manufacturer located in the Niverville Business Park, to extend the use of their building to include trades, engine repair, or equipment rentals in order to allow them to rent out a number of their empty bays until they expand their own services sometime in the future. Council voted unanimously in favour.
The Niverville Heritage Holdings Inc. management team then presented their annual report to council.
“The Niverville Heritage Centre’s board of directors is committed to the [facility] as a social enterprise for the purpose of creating long-term sustainability in an environmentally friendly campus with minimal impact on public funds,” said Robert Manchulenko, Chief Officer of Hospitality and Support Services.
A social enterprise, Manchulenko explained, is an organization that commits itself to positive financial, social, and environmental outcomes. He says that its social mission is just as central to its success as profit, and that there must be present a high commitment to the common good over personal or corporate gain.
On this note, Manchulenko pointed to the many successes the Heritage Centre has seen over the years. In 2004, the centre began with 10,000 square feet of space and employed one full-time and one part-time staff member. In 2005, annual revenues were $400,000.
Today, the facility encompasses 8.8 acres of land and employs more than 300 people, almost 50 percent of them Niverville residents. Gross revenues currently exceed $12 million. Visitors to the centre number in excess of 80,000 per year.
Outside of employment opportunities, the facility has also given back to the community by providing much-needed housing to 165 seniors at all levels of aging. They have been avid sponsors of many local clubs and committees and spent more than $750,000 with local businesses in 2018. A further $240,000 is paid back to the Town of Niverville annually as a grant in lieu of property taxes.
The Heritage Centre’s full 2018 financial statement was presented to council.
In other news, council proposed that capital development rate increases will be applied to developers’ costs in the near future. In 2020, single-family unit fees will be increased to $6,750. and in 2021 to $8,000. Multifamily units will see similar rate hikes to $4,125 in 2020 and to $5,750 in 2021. These fees are intended to cover the costs of sewer and water enhancements to new developments.
New parking hours will soon be applied to Fourth Avenue South between Main Street and First Street South. Fifteen-minute parking signs will appear along the east side of this stretch of road to accommodate customers of Country Snacks as they undergo construction.
As well, two-hour parking limits will be applied to the north side of Second Street South between Third Avenue South and Heritage Trail. These restrictions will only be applied between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, in order to prevent Heritage Centre employees from parking in residential areas.
In order to commemorate Niverville’s fiftieth anniversary this year, council has commissioned the construction and installation of new welcome signs on the east and west entries into town. The estimated cost is $7,692 for both. The signs will acknowledge the community’s anniversary year.
CAO Eric King was pleased to announce the town’s receipt of a $100,000 federal government grant for the proposed playground to be constructed near the splash park at Hespeler Park. The grant will allow council to contract out the entire build this summer. Contracts will be tendered to Playgrounds-R-Us, Valleywest Landscaping, Armada Construction, and Isaac Nemesz. Construction is expected to be completed by the fall.
Second and third reading were given to the town’s 2019 budget. For more information regarding the budget, a full breakdown is available on the Town of Niverville’s website. This subject was also covered in a January 30 article in The Citizen entitled “Niverville Council Introduces 2019 Budget.”
As a final note, Mayor Myron Dyck extended a heartfelt thank you to Greg Funk, who recently retired from Niverville’s Fire and Emergency Services department after 22 years of service.