CALEB NICKERSON
BRISTOL Jan. 5, 2020
On Feb. 5, elected officials and residents of Bristol were on hand at the unveiling of the newly renovated municipal office and library. The renovations to the . . .
space, which moved the library to where the council chambers used to be, started in April 2019 and finished up recently.
Mayor Brent Orr said that the change had been in the works for some time, and came to fruition due to the help from their federal and provincial counterparts, who each chipped in a third of the cost.
“It was always our plan to have more security for the office area,” he said. “When the library was here, the office area was always open. We wanted the library to have its own entrance and bathrooms. That’s what all started it. The staff were made aware of a grant that was available so they pursued it with great diligence, so we got money from the federal and provincial [governments].”
Orr said most of the changes were cosmetic, such as one of the bathrooms being removed in the new library area to make way for a reading nook, and a wall being erected where the chamber now sits.
Pontiac Warden Jane Toller was in attendance and praised the Bristol council for their accomplishment.
“When you look back at the pictures to see what it used to be, it’s a much better use of space,” she said,
Toller added that when she heard about the project and how the municipality proactively pursued grant funding to pay for it, she encouraged other municipalities in the MRC to do the same.
“It started with his council being in the driver’s seat saying, ‘We’re going to take this much money from our budget, and then being able to get the federal and provincial money,” she said. “I said to the rest of the mayors, you should all follow [their] example.”
