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WALK-INS SUMMERSummer WELCOME SALEIn STILL ON! STARTING AT % 20OFF 268 Sandwich St. S. (Across from Town Hall) 519-736-0420 www.theacc.ca Wednesday, August 4, 2021 Business owner excited about new building By Ron Giofu A local business is moving to a new building and hopes to bring in more businesses and apartment dwellers. Bruno Orsi, owner of 2-Way Automotive, will be leaving his long-time home at the corner of Murray St. and Ramsay St. in the coming weeks and moving to his new building known as the River Towne Plaza at 15 Renaud Dr. He will be occupying a larger space – over 6,000 square feet – in the new building with seven other commercial units along the building’s main floor. Upstairs, there will be nine apartments including two accessible units. Bruno Orsi is developing a new building – the River Towne Plaza – at 15 Renaud St. in Amherstburg. When it is completed, it will have nine Orsi said construction has moved slower than hoped apartments on the second floor and eight commercial units on the ground floor, including 2-Way Automotive, which he also owns. due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but said RTT Photo by Ron Giofu things are progressing forward. He said the new store Orsi estimated the cost of the new building to be be- plus utilities. He said it will still be another couple of will be designed specifically to be a parts store, noting tween $3-4 million. months before the apartments are ready. the location he is leaving had to be retrofitted for that Planning of the new building took a little over two “They’re all brand new,” he said. “They are the latest purpose. years, Orsi added, and construction has been going on and greatest. The utilities in this place are going to be The new building has been several years in the mak- for about one year. He said he is using the best mate- very little.” ing. He already owned the property on Renaud St. He rials on the project and wants it to be a high quality Most apartments will have Juliet balconies, in which had people interested in the Murray St. location over building. people can open their patio doors to let in light and the years and while he didn’t have any interest in mov- “I didn’t skimp out,” said Orsi. fresh air. Orsi said everything is being built to 2021 ing originally, he received an offer that made sense for The remaining commercial units will range in size standards including a fire warning system that identi- him and then he went to an architect to see what could from 1,000 square feet to 1,300 square feet and can be fies to the specific room where the trouble is. be done at the Renaud St. site. set up based on the needs of the tenants. The apart- “There’s no way in the world if there is a fire in the “I know they want to do a lot in the downtown ments will range from 1,000 square feet to 1,400 square building that they are going to miss it,” he said. area,” he said. feet with rents to start in the area of $2,000 per month Continued on Page 2 DR. CRANE AND DR. BERNYK FREE Market Now Accepting Evaluation NEW Patients John D’Alimonte SALES REPRESENTATIVE Direct (519) 796-8073 519-730-1030 Preferred Realty Ltd., Brokerage 519736-2131 Independently Owned and Operated 433 Sandwich St S., Amherstburg www.YouHear.ca Selling Windsor & Essex County Tony D'Alimonte* 519-818-2001 Jeremy D'Alimonte* 519-919-2001 www. .com It's Your Move! dalimonte *Sales Representative 2 – River Town Times – Wednesday, August 4, 2021 www.rivertowntimes.com WPSB won’t waive police clearance fees, will waive fingerprinting fees By Ron Giofu It was a partial victory for the Amherstburg Community Team in its request to have police clearance fees waived by the Windsor Police Service. While the request to waive police clearance fees was denied by the Windsor Police Services Board (WPSB), the board will send correspondence to the prov- ince asking it consider funding those costs in the future. The Windsor Police Ser- vice charges $25 per police clearance for volunteers and $55 for employment but there is no charge for a police clearance for volunteers in areas served by the OPP. The OPP does charge $41 per clearance for employment “We think if (the province) covers it for the OPP, they should cover municipali- ties as well,” said WPSB vice chair and Amherstburg Mayor Aldo DiCarlo of the volunteer cost. DiCarlo said they would have liked to waive the fees for volunteer groups, but they simply can’t afford it. Windsor city councillor Rino Bortolin requested the letter from the WPSB also go before Windsor and Amherstburg councils so it can be supported as well. The WPSB did agree to cover the cost if volunteers need to be fingerprinted. The Windsor Police Services Board (WPSB) met recently and discussed waiving fees for volunteer A report from Windsor Police Service information services director Dawn Hill police clearances as part of the meeting. While the board won’t waive the fees for police clearances, said the service has maintained the current cost recovery fee schedule since 2014. they will do so for fingerprinting costs. Screenshot “A survey of the ‘Big 12’ police services in Ontario shows that the Windsor Police Service is in line with the fees other agencies are charging for volunteer Hill stated five permanent full-time members staff the records search unit, in- record checks,” she wrote. “Prior to entering into a contract with the Windsor cluding two in Amherstburg. Total salary and benefits for the unit is $461,312.49 Police Service in 2019, the Amherstburg Police Service was charging $40 for an and Hill stated “this does not include the other material and associated costs of employment related record check and $20 for volunteer purposes.” producing a final completed record check, such as banking fees, cash pick up fees, Hill noted the Ottawa Police Service implemented a “waived fee” for volun- licensing fees, stationary, equipment and postage.” teer record checks in recent years. An average of 2,547 volunteer record checks are processed annually, she said, “The cost of waiving this fee eventually resulted in a $2.4 million budget defi- and for which $63,675 in related cost recovery fees are collected. Since 2019, 84 per cit,” Hill stated. “To offset this, in 2018, the Ottawa Police Services Board ap- cent of volunteer checks were completed for Windsor residents, and the remain- proved a fee increase for employment related checks to $90, so that persons seek- ing 16 per cent were for residents of Amherstburg. ing employment were subsidizing the cost of the volunteer checks. This however Hill stated fingerprints are required to be submitted to the RCMP when a check proved to be unsustainable as the board received numerous complaints from is run on a person and their name or date of birth is found to be a possible match community members and organizations that this cost was too high and present- to someone on the pardoned sex offender database. The RCMP charges $25 for ed a barrier to employment for many citizens.” this service, however waives this fee for volunteers. The $45 Windsor Police Ser- Hill stated Ottawa Police has since revised the policy and reverted to charging vice fee for fingerprint services however is not waived, she noted. a $20.40 fee for volunteers and $66 for an employment related check. “Only 4.68 per cent of all persons who get a record check however are required While Hill said the Windsor Police Service recognizes “the tremendous value to submit fingerprints, which averages to approximately 117 volunteers per that these community service groups provide to the city and town,” the amount year,” she said. of work that is required by its staff members to prepare a record check for em- By waiving the fingerprint fee, it will mean an annual loss to the service of ployment or volunteer purposes is considerable. approximately $5,265. The new River Towne Plaza, as seen at night. The building will have nine apartments and eight Bruno Orsi’s business, 2-Way Automotive, will be housed in a 6,000 square foot space inside his new commercial units. Submitted photo building at 15 Renaud Dr. He hopes to move from his current Murray St. location to the new store in the coming weeks. RTT Photo by Ron Giofu New building to have commercial, residential units Continued from Page 1 complete the move. The new building will also have three-phase power, Orsi stated, meaning that no “A lot of people come into the store and joke around saying ‘what are you still matter what a building or tenant wants to do, it can be accommodated. The apart- doing here?” said Orsi. ments will each have 100 amp service. The new building will have 49 parking spots in a private parking lot, as com- “There’s nothing in the apartments that you can’t run,” he said. pared to on-street parking at his current site. There are multiple access points to the apartments, with exterior staircases as “They’re parking challenged downtown,” he said. “The town does the best they well as an elevator inside the building. can but the reality is that it’s tough. Over here, it’s just us and whoever the tenants Orsi indicated he is open to having seniors and “snowbirds” living in the apart- are.” ments, adding if they choose to live there, there are steel doors, lighting and mul- Orsi said John Gillis is his architect and Front Construction and their subcontrac- tiple 4K security cameras around the building to keep it safe.

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