01-05-2025
- Climate
- Hamilton Spectator
County-owned greenhouse takes on significant winter damage
DAMASCUS — This year's winter weather has wreaked havoc on one of the county's tree nurseries in Wellington North.
A
new staff report
has identified 'significant structural damage' in one of the County of Wellington's Green Legacy Program nurseries, which is located on Grand River Conservation Area (GRCA) land near the Luther Marsh in Damascus.
Operating since 2012, staff said the damage was caused by snow accumulation along the building's west side this February, causing it to collapse.
Green Legacy member Rob Johnson said the greenhouse's interior contents, like tables, water lines and tree stock, weren't severely damaged and can be salvaged.
The original greenhouse installer, DeCloet Greenhouse Manufacturing Limited, said installing a new greenhouse and removing the existing greenhouse will cost approximately $48,776. A Disaster Recovery Program Rebate will reduce that by 10 per cent to $43,808.
Since the cost for the greenhouse replacement is below the county's insurance deductible, staff said $50,000 will be added to the capital budget from the Contingency and Stabilization Reserve to fund the project. This was recently approved by county council.
Any rebates or salvage value from the old greenhouse will be credited back to offset the reserve funding requirements.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
