April 20, 2020 · 0 Comments
SOME ORANGEVILLE RESIDENTS must be more than a little confused as to the state of construction work in town.
While most of the projects under way before they were ordered stopped as part of Ontario’s measures to combat spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, some have met the test set as being “essential.”
Of these, the largest was on Riddell Road, where work has proceeded on a huge expansion of the Montgomery Village retirement centre. It qualified because of the nature of the project, which is designed to deal with the shortage of accommodation for our senior citizens.
There was an entirely different reason given for a resumption of work at 63 Broadway, where one of the town’s oldest structures is being rebuilt and expanded in the hope of making it one of the town’s favourite eateries.
Work on the project was halted while the owners attempted to determine whether the construction was indeed “essential.” It resumed this week when word was received that at the present stage of construction there was a grave risk that the original building would collapse.
It will be interesting to see whether other projects will be able to resume once it is confirmed that the apex of the virus outbreak has finally been reached.