Powell River Public Library will receive a new roof in 2021.
At the December 17 city council meeting, councillors voted to reallocate $100,000 from the RCMP building roof replacement 2020 budget to increase the library roof replacement, from $300,000 to $400,000, enabling award of a contract for a full replacement to Nelson Roofing.
Councillor George Doubt said this was the reallocation of previously budgeted building maintenance funds, taking $100,000 from a future RCMP roof replacement and contributing it to the library, so that the entire roof of the library can be done at one time.
“It will be more efficient, it will save money and provide a better roof in the long run,” said Doubt. “We still have the RCMP building roof replacement in the budget as a future project.”
Council carried the recommendation unanimously.
According to a report from director of infrastructure Tor Birtig, the library building requires a complete roof replacement. He stated that city staff, in conjunction with a building envelope engineer, issued a request for tenders to five roofing contractors in the surrounding area that were capable and qualified to perform a roof replacement of this magnitude. The request contained three tendering options, including full replacement, 75 per cent replacement and 50 per cent replacement.
“After review of the five bids received, Nelson Roofing was the low bidder for all options,” stated Birtig.
Nelson’s bid for the full roof replacement came in at $363,579. Birtig stated it was staff’s conclusion that the roof replacement budget for this building should be increased by $100,000 to bring the total for this project to $400,000.
“The justification for completing a full roof replacement in one mobilization is lower overall cost and mitigating disruptions to the tenants of this building,” stated Birtig.
He added that if the reallocation was endorsed, the RCMP roof replacement budget would be reduced from $300,000 to $200,000 and additional funds may be required to complete this project.
