By Chad Ingram

Published March 7 2017

Algonquin Highlands has a new contractor to complete the expansion of the municipal office along North Shore Road after the previous builder defaulted on the job last year.

Lindsay-based Carbon Contracting has been hired to complete the addition.
“The contractor is on site now and completion is underway” Algonquin Highlands chief administrative officer Angie Bird told the paper.

Council awarded the contract for the project to Woodbridge’s Maram Building Corp. in April of 2016.
The $580000 project – which includes more workspace for staff as well as accessible washrooms and front entranceway – had initially been scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer.
However by fall the company had defaulted on the contract. The Times was not able to make contact with Maram Building Corp. for comment.

The township put in a claim on the performance bond for the project and began working with the bond company to engage a new contractor. While it was hoped at the time that the project would be completed by mid-January “the process through the bond company took a bit longer than expected” Bird wrote in an email. “The contractor is on-site now and completion is underway. There is not a definite completion date however their focus is finishing the interior renovations and then in the spring the outside renovations can be completed. Algonquin Highlands will not incur any additional expenses as a result with the exception of some additional project management fees by the consultant AECOM.”

Some staffers have been working out of the council chamber room at the municipal office with council meetings taking place at the Stanhope Firefighters’ Community Hall also located on North Shore Road for most of the past year.