New Town Hall opens
By Chris Simon

Workers will be putting the finishing touches on the council chambers at the New Town Hall over the next few weeks. The $10 million facility officially opened yesterday.

Mike Eckstein will finally have room to stretch his legs at work.

After years working in a cramped and overstretched planning and development department, located in the basement of Innisfil's old administration building, Eckstein was more than p;eased to be moving into the New Town Hall Friday. Packing equipment and office supplies into large blue and black plastic boxes, placing files into cardboard holders, and checking some last minute e-mails before the ordered chaos was well worth the trouble, he said laughing.

"It's very nice to be in the new facility ... I can finally stretch my legs," he said, taking a break from scrolling through e-mails. "I've been over a couple times to check things out. It's a very nice place. The work areas are much more functional, it's bright, there is lots of room to grow."

The New Town Hall officially opened to the public yesterday. However, for the previous few days, staff and professional movers had been relocating the town's administration offices into the new $10 million facility.

Innisfil municipal staff and movers were busy relocating files and office equipment to the New Town Hall over the last few days. The new hall officially opened to the public yesterday.

The new site is significantly larger than the old administration building. It features a handicap accessible council chambers with a 150 seat public gallery, three community meeting rooms, a customer service centre near the front entrance and archive storage space.

CAO Larry Allison says the new site is vastly superior to the old building, and a necessity for the town's growing population.

"From our perspective, the staff have really come together and they're doing the best they can to make this (move) as smooth as possible," he said.

"Right now (staff) are in satellite areas, they're going to be brought into one (building, which will probably improve efficiency. We're going to have a centralized customer service desk, where you've got the onestop shop."

"People will not be tripping up on one another, they'll have space to themselves. In the old environment, there was constant interruptions and space problems all over."

The third floor of the building will also contain 1,000 square feet of extra space, which could be leased out to private business owners until the town needs to expand its offices.

Councillor Peter Kmet, who was touring the new facility for the first time Friday, says the public will be better served in the new building.

"When people come in and see it, they'll be amazed by the thought that went into it," he said. "Efficiency should be much better now, and it's user friendly. Hopefully, things will move a little bit faster. For the town, it's one giant step."

But the move was bittersweet and surprising for others.

"It's been quite a daunting task," said engineering department employee Grant Shellswell, noting he found files from the 1970s while organizing for the move.

Photos by Chris Simon