And as the current expansion winds down, the Town is now in the midst of planning the second phase — a $23 million addition to the top of Town Hall in 2015 to cope with the demands of the growing municipality.

“This is just another kick,” Milton resident Bob Beyette complained of the imported glass wall. “With what’s going on in the world today…I’m not very happy.”

Beyette had appealed unsuccessfully to town council in early 2006 to postpone the current expansion, at the time the design was approved. Other residents complained at the time that a list of itemized costs for the expansion wasn’t available.

The Town’s director of community services, Jennifer Reynolds, said the English glass will serve as a structural wall to connect the historic Town Hall to its 50,000-square-foot addition.

“It’s a system that is unique to a few suppliers and that’s why it came from England,” said Reynolds.

“It was one of the design elements that the architects wished to use in the building — transparency and clarity related to democracy and local government and that kind of thing.”

Milton Mayor Gord Krantz acknowledged that some residents might find the imported glass wall “extravagant.” He noted residents had also expressed concern in the past about the extra costs associated with the stone facade on the new expansion, but that it was important for the new building to fit in with the historic structure.

“We could’ve put aluminum siding,” Krantz said.

Regional Councillor Colin Best, who had previously questioned the necessity of the current expansion, said the second phase of the expansion “doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“You don’t see people adding additions to Queens Park,” he said.

The second phase of the Town Hall expansion was originally scheduled to start in 2013. However, the Town’s proposed 2009 budget, which will be discussed at a public council meeting Monday evening, reveals staff are recommending the 50,000-square-foot addition be pushed back until 2015.

Once the current expansion is completed in early 2009, staff working at another Town-owned building on Industrial Drive will be able to move into their new home. The two-phase expansion to the Town Hall has been designed to allow the majority of Town staff to work under one roof.

The expansions are necessary to accommodate the increasing amount of employees hired to help run the rapidly-expanding population of Milton, said staff.

About half of the expansion is paid for by capital provision reserves, money that came from developers as part of financial agreements made between the Town and developers during the Bristol and Sherwood secondary planning processes. The Town can’t put the full cost onto developers, however, as the Province’s Development Charges Act doesn’t require developers to pay the capital costs for expansion of municipal administration headquarters.

Tim Foran can be reached at tforan@miltoncanadianchampion.com .