Monday, August 17, 2015

Council to outline succesful bidder for Lester Centre roof replacement tonight

City council will deliver some news from one of the Closed sessions of last month tonight, with one of the items on the Agenda for this evenings Council session an announcement related to the roofing replacement project for the city's home for entertainment, the Lester Centre.

Towards the end of this evening's session, Council will announce that Eby and Son's has been awarded the contract for the project, though details on the contract award are rather sparse from the Agenda synopsis.

Council will announce that work is moving ahead
for a roof replacement project for the Lester Centre

Earlier this year, the City highlighted the project as one of its priorities for the year ahead, noting that it would require additional funding before the project estimated to cost near 250,000 dollars could get underway.

On June 18th, as part of the Prince Rupert Port Authority Annual Public Meeting, the Roofing project was selected as the one chosen by the Port to support this year.

It is just one, of a number of projects that the Port has provided funding for throughout the region over the years. 

The Port's contribution through the community Fund, was announced as 125,000 dollars, an amount that would cover close to half of the estimated cost of replacement. 

Council's decision on the contract to be awarded to Eby and Sons was made at the Closed Session of July 20th, and marks the second major roofing project the City has awarded the company this year.

In April, Council released details from a closed session that had awarded the company the work for the Roofing project at the Earl Mah Aquatic Centre.

No timeline was noted in the Agenda for tonight, as to when the project will get underway or when Council will deliver further information related to tender for the roof project.

For more items related to City Council discussion see our archive page here.

Update August 21:  Following the announcement of Monday evening regarding the contract for the roof renovations at the Lester Centre, the City provided further background later in the week.

Among the highlights related to the project:

The cost of the repairs has changed significantly from the original estimate of 250,000 dollars, with the new estimate for the roofing work reduced to $144,000. No details were provided as to how those cost savings were accomplished since the project was first put out to tender.

With that, the dynamic related to the Prince Rupert Port Authorities funding for the project has change as well.

With the reduced cost, the funding of the project through the Port's Community Investment Fund will also be decreased, as the guidelines related to that funding called for fifty per cent of the cost to be covered.

With that, the new port donation will become $71,600 of the new cost.

Things get a little complicated from that point, as it turns out that the City at the moment, does not have the required fifty percent matching funding to move the project forward.

So to ensure that the Lester Centre roofing project is underway this fall, the Port has provided an interest free loan to the City, for the required $71,600, with a repayment date  for the City of August 1, 2016

In total the Port's financial contribution to the City towards the project will be $143,201.23, with half of that amount a donation, the remainder by way of the interest free loan.

To this point, The City of Prince Rupert has not outlined a timeline for the start or completion of the project.

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