Work is proceeding on the new emergency services facility for City of Powell River.
At the September 17 city council meeting, councillor Maggie Hathaway, chair of the emergency services select advisory committee, outlined work the committee had been doing.
She said the committee had invited the architects, who are consultants for the project, to be in attendance at a committee meeting. She said the committee had come up with a new preferred location for the emergency services facility on Duncan Street, rather than the Barnet Street site that was originally identified.
Hathaway said the architects came to Powell River to answer questions from the committee.
She said some of the advantages of the Duncan Street site are that it is tiered for multiple level entrances, it is a corner site, it has existing infrastructure and it is an established industrial site. She added that existing residences face away from the proposed building.
The next steps for this location would include geotechnical and environmental investigation.
Hathaway said the architects then explained costing, estimated at $9 million. She said as the project moves forward, that number is likely to change.
“I’m hoping that as we move forward that number will go down,” said Hathaway. “We learned a lot and they seemed quite pleased with our new selection.”
Mayor Dave Formosa asked if the design being looked at for the previously identified Barnet Street location would be the same as the one at Duncan Street. Hathaway said she doubts it because the Duncan location is on a hillside, while the Barnet location is flat.
“It sounds like what they are looking at is a tiered, two-storey building,” said Hathaway. “They were quite excited about the opportunity to do a two-storey design. It may be different.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked if the city had paid them to engineer the original design, and if the city has to redo the process.
Hathaway said the city would have to have investigations done at the new site, and that an environmental study would be done. She said she didn’t think one had been done at the original site.
“The committee has concerns about the environmental on Barnet Street,” said Hathaway. “That’s why we looked at Duncan. It’s an excellent location and to the best of anyone’s memory or knowledge, there is likely no contamination there. If there is, it might be some minor oil from doing oil changes or whatever from city vehicles.”
Elliott asked if the extra cost of reengineering the building for a different site would be offset by savings the city would have by not having to deal with environmental issues at the Barnet site.
Hathaway said she could not answer that. She said the committee’s work was tied up until it could get the necessary studies done.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said it was her understanding that there was no engineering done on the Barnet site, but instead, it was a concept plan. Hathaway said that was the case.
Councillor Jim Palm asked if the figure that was quoted, the $9 million that “gets everyone’s attention,” was coming forward because the architects looked at Qualicum’s facility.
“Is that where that number originates? My second question, to follow that up, is our plan still to build the facility out of wood?” asked Palm.
Hathaway said the architects may have made a comparison with Qualicum because they designed the Qualicum facility, so that’s what they have for reference.
“We’ve never done a comparison between Powell River and Qualicum,” added Hathaway.
