City council approved $460,000 in cost overruns on Monday night for a pair of capital projects planned for this year.
Council approved spending $760,000 to construct a new washroom facility at Carrie Jane Gray Park and approved spending $500,000 to connect the Ramada Hotel to the city’s Downtown Renewable Energy System. The washroom project had an initial budget of $500,000 and the Downtown Renewable Energy System project was initially budgeted at $300,000, according to a pair of reports presented to city council on Monday night.
“The existing facilities (in Carrie Jane Gray Park) have flooding issues,” city director of civic operations Blake McIntosh said. “When they are open, they just don’t function as well as when they were new.”
The current washroom facilities at the park will not be sufficient when the city hosts the B.C. Summer Games from July 21 to July 24, he added. The new washroom is expected to be complete just in time for the games.
The city only received a single bid on each of the projects, McIntosh said. The washroom project was originally put out to tender in June last year, but the city only received a single bid. A second tender process was conducted in January, but the city still received just one bid on the work – at a slightly higher cost than the June bid process, he added.
Leland Hanson, city manager of project delivery, said the proposed park bathroom is 750 sq. feet, roughly double the size of the existing bathroom at Carrie Jane Gray Park. The concrete block building will include locked storage for parks staff equipment.
Concrete block construction is needed, he added, because of the amount of wear and tear public washroom facilities experience. The new facility is expected to have a 25-year useful life, Hanson added.
“We built the same floor plan in Ron Brent (Park) in 2020. It was 40 per cent smaller, and it cost $200,000,” Hanson said.
A shortage of skilled tradespeople and other supply chain issues has resulted in significant inflation of construction costs in the city, he added.
“This kind of price for a square building is just blowing me away. We could build a whole house for this,” Coun. Terri McConnachie said. “It’s a significant amount of money.”
McConnachie and councillors Brian Skakun and Kyle Sampson voted against the construction of the new bathroom facility. The motion passed five to three.
“I can appreciate that costs have gone up, but I can’t support this,” Skakun said. “To spend $760,000 on one washroom…. Is too much.”
Sampson brought forward a motion to look for other storage options at the park, to reduce the size of the needed building. That motion was defeated.
Had it been approved, the city would have had to redesign the project and go through a new bidding process, city manager Walter Babicz said.
“My concern is if we do hold off on this, it is just going to increase in costs,” Coun. Cori Ramsay said. “It is still a lot of money for a washroom. (But) there needs to be a washroom in that park.”
CITY TO RECOUP DISTRICT ENERGY PROJECT COSTS
The city is projecting a significant increase in labour and materials for the project to connect the Ramada Hotel to the city’s carbon-neutral Downtown Renewable Energy System, McIntosh told city council. The project was initially planned in 2018 and revised in late 2021, but the single bid came in 66 per cent higher than budgeted.
The city will cover a portion of the initial cost of connecting the hotel, city utilities manager William Wedel said, but will recoup those costs over 12 years by charging fees for the service. The goal is to make connecting to the system cost-competitive with a conventional boiler system.
“The more connections we make, the more efficient the system is,” Wadel said. “At this point, the customer is still interested in this service. Like buying an electric car, people don’t just do it because it is the best car.”
Many businesses and organizations are looking to reduce their carbon footprint, he said. However, the city retains all credit for the greenhouse gas reductions.
“I am not happy about this increased cost,” Skakun said. “But the more we can convince the private sector to connect (to the system)… the payback is going to be quicker.”
Coun. Garth Frizzell said the with cost of natural gas on the rise, the wood waste-fired energy system will be increasingly cost competitive.
“The success of connecting to a private enterprise like this will promote the system,” he said.
However, he said, he’s concerned about lack of competitive bids the city is getting on its capital projects.
“This is the second project where we have seen just one bid, and that bid has been out of the ballpark.”
