While the ribbon was officially cut in January, some odd jobs remain on a $1.5 million renovation to the Memorial Hall in Carman. All three floors of the heritage building were completely gutted to update the municipal offices for the Town of Carman and R.M. of Dufferin, the shared Council Chamber and Economic Development offices. The project also saw the addition of more meeting rooms and offices available for rent by community groups.

This feature window will be replacedMayor Bob Mitchell says the basement is the focus for a majority of the left-over tasks.

"As an after-thought we put a boardroom, offices and storage rooms down there so now they're just in the process of putting shelving units into the storage rooms, there's doors just going on in all the added rooms...the ceiling grid has all been put up and was finished on Monday."

Memorial Hall stairwell

The only items left untouched in the renovation was the Memorial Room - a space dedicated to the First World War - and the staircase spanning all three floors. Mitchell says however, that stairwell will see some improvements shortly.

"So there's new runners are needed, nosing for all the stairs (and) some of the railings need to be shored up and fixed a little bit."

While a big motivation behind the renovation was to improve wheelchair accessibility, the Mayor notes some adjustments need to be made to the new front desks at the Town and R.M. offices, explaining that a portion of each counter will need to be lowered. "They don't meet code...so we'll get those adjusted."

Mitchell adds the big feature window at the front of the Memorial Hall will also be replaced and a new sidewalk will be installed.

Meantime, a recent inspection on the roof of the building revealed some work also needs to happen there. Mitchell says money has already been set aside in the current year's budget to pay for this work and expects to tender out the project shortly.