Nesbitt public works shop to break ground this month

The Municipality of Oakland-Wawanesa will move forward with a new public works shop this year at a cost of $833,702 by introducing a temporary tax on properties.

The public works shop, a 60-by-100-foot structure planned for 54 Main St. in Nesbitt, is expected to break ground this month, CAO Joni Swidnicki said in an interview on Friday.

The project will be funded by a $76.83 special tax on each taxable parcel annually from 2026 to 2035.

The shop will be built through the winter and is anticipated to be completed in March 2027, Swidnicki said.

The project was made official in August after the Manitoba Municipal Board ruled on the side of the municipality for its proposed taxation bylaw to pay for the shop. More than 25 residents had challenged the bylaw last year, leading to it being escalated to the board for adjudication.

In its decision on Aug. 7, the board acknowledged residents’ objections, but ordered that the bylaw be approved without recommending any changes.

Swidnicki said the municipality paused its plans until that decision was made.

“We were waiting on the final board approval to know that (the contractor) could go ahead and start construction,” Swidnick said. “He intends to do some breaking of the ground, kind of mid-October.”

Council will be tabling a conditional use and variance application at the Oct. 20 council meeting to facilitate the development, she said.

Dennis Rome, a former councillor in Oakland-Wawanesa who opposed the bylaw earlier this year, said on Friday he is not surprised that the Manitoba Municipal Board sided with the municipality.

“I think it’s predictable that they pretty much always go along with the municipality as far as how they want to approach it,” Rome said. “The municipal board normally sides with the municipal council.”

Rome said despite the board ruling, he is still convinced the municipality’s process was flawed.

The municipal board disagreed in its ruling with one of the criticisms that Rome and others had raised: claims that Oakland-Wawanesa did not provide enough information about the shop when presenting the project to the public and seeking support through taxation.

“The board finds that the municipality adequately explained the nature of the proposed project,” the board wrote in its decision.

The board did acknowledge the other main argument Rome had made — that Oakland-Wawanesa should not be allowed to pay for the shop using a local improvement project tax but instead should pay for it using building reserve funds.

“While the board agrees that the use of reserve funds would be appropriate for this type of project, the board lacks the jurisdiction to order same,” the board wrote.

Council gave final reading to the taxation bylaw to finance the project at its Aug. 18 meeting, following the approval from the board. The taxation to fund the project stands to raise a little more than $900,000 from 1,668 properties.

Head of Council Dave Kreklewich on Friday said that following the ruling, everything is “on side” with the proposal and that the conversation has changed in the community. He added that even though some residents challenged the method to pay for the project, most people supported the rebuild of the shop in Nesbitt.

Kreklewich noted that the old shop — built circa 1964 — was cramped and had poor lighting, among other problems. The new shop will provide space indoors for equipment repairs and increased storage for the municipality’s assets, he said.

The new shop is planned to have three overhead doors, a kitchen and office area, and a heated concrete floor.

“We have in excess of $2 million worth of equipment that really needs to be protected on a regular basis,” he said. “It’s just going to make it so that we can put more equipment, as far as our tractors and our loaders and that kind of stuff, under protection.”

Swidnicki said the municipality has two graders, a loader, a tractor, a truck, a steamer, a sander and a variety of shop and hand tools.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com