A number of Niverville residents attended an open house last night to voice their opinions on the town’s proposition to buy the Horizon Livestock building.

Mayor Myron Dyck says they have outgrown their current municipal office to the point where they now hold council meetings at the Heritage Centre. About 40 people attended the meeting and resident Derek Loepp says he acknowledges the current office is too small and outdated but adds he still has concerns about this specific purchase.

"This has been described as a purchase of opportunity and, of course by definition, a purchase of opportunity has quite a tight timeline," notes Loepp. "My only concerns I guess, because I’m all in favour of moving forward and development and moving upward within the town and growing, but often when you have to make a decision under duress, not all things are considered and a few questions I asked this evening were related to planning, needs analysis, comparison, consulting and reviews."

Loepp says he is not quite satisfied with all the answers he got at the information meeting and notes he will do more digging to find answers before the public hearing which is coming up on Tuesday evening. 

Mayor Dyck adds they had the building appraised, by an outside firm, and notes the proposed deal is to purchase the building for 1.6 million dollars in cash and issue a 300,000 dollar tax receipt for the difference. Dyck says they simply need more space and says this purchase is a great opportunity. He notes perhaps the need for a new administration office and to create additional space for the fire department to store equipment and do training was in the one to five-year plan but states the opportunity presented itself now.

"After council did its due diligence, it said it makes sense to do it now rather than way and say two years from now what might be available to us, building new, will there be an existing building, what’s that going to look like," says Dyck. "We believe from a monetary point of view for our residents, this is the best deal that we can do for them and it should be done now."

Loepp notes he sees the town argument for a new building but just doesn't believe council needs to jump on this opportunity to purchase this specific building. 

"There’s no question that there is a need for a new building for the town building. Absolutely, it’s small, it’s old. Just even when you’re walking in there to pay water bills and taxes, you can just see the space that they are working within so there’s no question that something needs to change. Do they need 6,500 square feet from 2,500 square feet right now? I’m not sure. They talk about growth and plans to grow and that sort of thing. I think the challenge for me is that I haven’t seen those growth plans on paper."

The public hearing is set for next Tuesday's council meeting at the Niverville Heritage Centre. 

Read More: Niverville Plans Meeting To Address Concerns Regarding Building Purchase