The Saugeen Conservation Authority has found a new home.
The agency has purchased the soon-to-be vacated Trillium Mutual Insurance head office in Formosa.
Trillium is building a new head office in Listowel.
Authority Chair Doug Freiburger says the current head office at the Headquarters Conservation Area near Hanover is too small.
It was built in 1975 to house seven staff members, and 18 people work there now.
He says the board decided in 2003 to look for various options such as building a new facility or finding an existing one that was suitable.
Freiburger says the authority decided it was not going to ask member municipalities for more money to build or buy a new building, they instead raised money by selling properties that did not serve a conservation purpose.
No date has yet been selected for when the Saugeen Conservation Authority will make the move to Formosa.
Freiburger notes they are planning to add a small addition to the building as well.
Details of the purchase price are not being released.
Freiburger says the future of the building at Headquarters Conservation area is still not clear, but it will not be sold, and the conservation area will continue to operate.
He says the building could be leased, used for the authority’s educational programming, or eventually demolished if it sits empty.
Freiburger says the Formosa building is 22 kilometres from the current head office, but is still in the middle part of the Saugeen watershed.
He notes some staff will have a little further to travel to get to work, while others will have a shorter trip.