Parksville council has taken an early step in its goal to renovate and expand its fire hall, with a vote in favour of paying for a Class B estimate, which will cost approximately $330,000.
The estimate will provide the city with a detailed design for a new fire hall, according to Keeva Kehler, the city's chief administrative officer.
“We would end up with plans that are almost building permit ready, but they have to do a lot of work to get there,” Kehler said during council's April 7 meeting. “When we put it in the budget we have a much better sense of what the cost range is.”
Council is looking at three options, which include $11 million to renovate the existing hall, $29 million for a new hall and between $2 million and $10 million to address occupational health and safety issues.
Staff were directed to investigate costs for the Class B estimate back in November and reported back that estimate will be $110,000 over the $220,000 that was budgeted.
The estimate does 50 to 60 per cent of the design work, according to Fire Chief Marc Norris, and looks at elements such as structural, electrical and architectural.
“It’s our only fire station. We need to operate all of our operations out of it and it’s been too small since the day we moved into it in 2011,” Norris said, and added that a new hall should be designed to last 50 or 60 years.
The $2-million to $10-million range is a staff estimate with a large range because there are multiple ways to address the occupational health and safety issues, Norris said.
Mayor Doug O'Brien said he opposed the estimate at this time because he believes the project's cost will have changed "considerably" by the time it actually begins, due to economic uncertainty caused by unpredictable tariffs imposed by the U.S.
“I would suggest that this is not the time. The public is clearly speaking loud and clear that they don’t want expenditures on any major projects of any sort at this time," O'Brien said, and pointed to the recent "no" vote on the Ravensong pool expansion referendum. “There’s a lot of uncertainty with the public right now. Their jobs and how things are going to impact them.”
O'Brien suggested council defer the decision for now and favoured dealing with the occupational health and safety issues soon, since they are a requirement.
Since those requirements are categorized as operational and not capital, they would likely not be eligible for grant funding, but could be funded through reserves, according to Jedha Holmes, director of finance.
“We would really need to drill down a little bit I think on what the OH and S issues are," Holmes said. "And then what are the alternatives for resolving some of those and then coming back to council as we did last year with some funding alternatives.”
Coun. Sean Wood said he would prefer to see the city go ahead with the Class B estimate, rather than simply address the required occupational health and safety issues, which he called “band-aids upon band-aids”.
Council voted in favour of a motion by Coun. Adam Fras to fund the estimate, with O'Brien opposed.
“I think it would be a better product that gives more life for the fire department,” said Fras, who added the decision sticks with council's previous direction, which he did not see a “compelling” reason to divert from. “It is a hard decision.”
