City of Powell River councillors have voted to forward correspondence regarding the proposed new fire hall to the committee looking into the matter.
At the March 30 committee of the whole meeting, councillors reviewed an email from Arthur Richards, who outlined prospective costs of the planned emergency services facility building (fire hall) and expressed concerns about the cost of the facility. Richards stated the minutes of a meeting on June 25, 2020, indicated that committee members expressed concerns regarding the high contingencies and mark-ups in the feasibility study. The architects advised that the contingencies and mark-ups they used are standard in all of their projects and through the project, the percentages may go down.
Richards stated the cost of a 19,142 square foot building at $400 per square foot is $7.7 million, and adding contingencies of 23 per cent, it could cost more than $9.4 million to pay for the building.
He added that building leadership to energy and environmental design (LEED) standard and building to net zero standard could add even more cost to the project.
“While I agree that building some of these standards into the emergency services facility will bring savings in the future, I believe the committee is not qualified to make those decisions,” stated Richards. “I believe there should be a separate committee that can have no conflict of interest.”
Richards, who was on the fire hall emergency services facility committee but resigned, said he voted in favour of the new fire hall but always believed that this facility is far more extravagant than what the city requires.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said the city has the committee which is dealing with all of the things contained in Richards’ correspondence and perhaps the correspondence should be referred to that committee.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she was concerned the committee would not meet for quite some time.
“It would be nice to provide the information that indicates that his belief in the ability to refurbish and make a sound building out of the one we have has been proven that it can’t be,” said Elliott. “His entire letter is premised on the idea that we can do upgrades to the building we have and we’ve decided that can’t happen. Maybe he needs that information and we should answer him.”
Hathaway said she didn’t recall Richards referring to the current fire hall being upgraded in his letter the committee was reviewing at the March 30 meeting.
“He’s talking about moving forward with a new fire hall,” said Hathaway. “The committee will be meeting probably in early April. Perhaps staff should respond, saying his letter has been referred to the committee to deal with.”
Elliott then said she had read a previous letter from Richards that talked about refurbishing the existing fire hall.
Hathaway said the subject came up in a different letter than the one they were reviewing at the committee of the whole meeting.
Councillor George Doubt said as he reads the letter, Richards doesn’t agree with the committee’s estimate of the possible cost of the fire hall at $7.5 million. Doubt said Richards disagrees with the committee’s opinion on that and that’s why Doubt thought it was the logical thing to refer it to the committee.
Doubt said the fire hall emergency services facility committee is an advisory committee, similar to other advisory committees, which gives advice to city council.
Decision to be made by council
“The decision is being made by council,” said Doubt. “We’ve asked for staff to create a report on some of these things. The decision will be made by council on what we do with that report. The final decision on investing in a fire hall will involve the taxpayer.”
Committee chair councillor Jim Palm said when he was reading Richards’ letter, the thought came to mind that when council looks back on where it was with Powell River Public Library a number of years ago, there was a committee that worked hard on bringing forward a study on a facility down by the waterfront.
“That was going to be fairly costly for the community, and lo and behold, we went in another direction because of cost,” said Palm. “So, things happen and this is just part of the process and they have a way of working through it. We are in the middle of the process and we need to let it evolve.”
The committee voted to send Richards’ letter to the fire hall emergency services facility committee.
