Upgrades to make the Westlock Curling Rink more accessible may be put on hold after it was discovered an additional $80,000 is required to complete the renovations.
Town councillors heard at their July 8 meeting the $184,600 project to redo the washrooms had increased by $79,300 after it was learned asbestos would have to be removed and the building would have to be brought up to code by fire rating the ceiling and floors.
The project has already been approved for the Community Facilities Enhancement Program grant for $92,300 from the province and a federal Enabling Accessibility Fund grant for the same amount, which covers the pricetag of the original project.
Council passed a motion to direct administration to further investigate alternative project options while staying within the approved budget and to request extensions on the grants already received.
Community services director Mike Butler told council that after applying for a permit to build, it was found that the building was not up to code and would have to be upgraded before any accessibility renovations could take place.
“We’ve got $184,000 from governments, we’ve got to proceed and we have to get the work done. It’s unfortunate we have to spend $79,000 of our own money, but having said that I don’t want to leave $184,000 sitting on the table,” said Coun. John Shoemaker. “This work will have to be done sometime in the future and if we don’t take the government money, we’ll be on the hook for the $300,000 when the costs goes up.”
Mayor Ralph Leriger was of two minds on the subject though and urged that other alternatives be considered, including asking for an extension on the grants or possibly downsizing the scope of the project.
“While I don’t want to give the grant money back, I am concerned about the length of time it has taken to go this far over budget and where we’re at,” he said, inquiring whether a detailed design had been drawn up yet.
“It’s July, so actually getting this construction completed for this year is now out of the question. We’ve missed this upcoming curling season. If we still have to go out for a detailed design yet and then go out for tenders and then get it done, it’s not getting done this year,” said Leriger.
Butler said he was hopeful it could be completed before the end of the year.
Interim CAO Simone Wiley pointed out the architect has been working off of a design that was completed in 2015 and that she held off on having a detailed design completed so as not to incur additional costs until it had come to council.
“It’s not our most used facility that we have,” said Leriger. “Curling itself has done well, but if we look at the number of Westlock residents that actually use the facility, to add another $80,000, when we know perfectly well we’ve got lots of places we could spend $80,000, concerns me, and I think we should be asking for a grant extension and looking for a way to get this project done on the budget we originally talked about.”
“Our original concept was to do it with the grant money or it wasn’t going to happen.”
Coun. Murtaza Jamaly agreed: “We’re cost-constrained on so many fronts. It’s not that we don’t show support for our curling club, they have our support through and through, but we need to control costs.”
