Weyburn city council voted on Monday night to proceed to a call for tenders for the new fire hall and works shop to be constructed at 16th St., with a revised price tag estimate of $2.58 million. The tender documents should be ready to go out by March once the plans are drawn up.
The vote wasn't unanimous, as aldermen indicated the price estimate will have to improve before they'll vote to continue on to the construction stage. Only Ald. Debra Button voted against going to tender, but Ald. Mike Pickering and Mayor Don Schlosser added that they would not vote to support a building of this price if the tenders don't come in lower than this latest estimate.
The original price estimate was set at $2.7 million, but that estimate went up to $3.2 million as the surplus of building projects around Saskatchewan drove up prices for contractors' services.
"Contractors are no longer hungry for work, and there are increased charges for their labor and materials," said Ald. Ray Hamm of the facilities committee.
Some revisions and deletions were made to the plan which brought the estimate down to $2.58 million, including deleting the carpentry shop and the hose tower for the fire department.
"Hopefully it'll be less than that. If council approves going to tender, the price that comes in should be less than that," said Ald. Hamm, adding that the deletion of the hose tower is still under discussion, as some committee members felt the tower should be retained in some form.
Other changes included eliminating the concrete pads from the works shop portion of the facility, reducing the administration office space and changes were made to the mechanical features, such as switching from base floor heating to overhead hot-air heating.
"We have not compromised the delivery of services, but we may have compromised the longevity of the building. This is a building that will not last as long as the current fire hall," said Ald. Hamm.
Ald. Pickering said while he supported going ahead to tendering, he was concerned that this latest price estimate did not include such costs as parking, roads and the GST, all of which should put the total price over the $3 million mark. He reiterated his election stance that some of these monies should be put into other things, and he would not be able to support such a price tag.
Ald. Button was concerned with the deletion of the carpentry shop and hose tower, saying the city will end up paying more in the long run if the new building is compromised now.
Going to tender does not mean the final building cost will be this high, noted Ald. Bill Rudachyk, as the plans can be re-analyzed once the tenders come back in, and changes can be made; the alternative is to wait until next year, when the price is sure to be substantially higher.
"I still say the price is way too high. If we can get the tenders out, we can go room by room or item by item and we can see where we can cut costs or where we can't cut costs. The infrastructure is the biggest cost in this building," said Ald. Ray Wahl.
Ald. Marlene Nedelcov agreed that the project has to proceed to tender now, or the price will escalate higher yet if it's delayed.
"I very much believe in this building and want to see it proceed, but I can't agree with it being compromised," said Ald. Button.
Mayor Schlosser agreed that the price is a concern to him, and said he couldn't see how higher contractor prices could be justified at this time. He noted if oil prices go down or if the agriculture sector struggles this year, the prices may very well come down much lower than this latest estimate; if the price comes in too high, he said he will be voting against it going ahead.
"I agree it is time to go forward, but I also want to be on record as not supporting a price tag of $2.6 million," said Ald. Pickering.
The current fire hall is experiencing some advancement of the building's deterioration than what council had been told last year, meanwhile, as Fire Chief Denis Pilon's report told of a "major structural collapse" in one of the bays in the area of the sump pit, which needed to be braced up before the #2 truck could be moved out of the hall. The temporary bracing of the floor has been done and the truck can be moved out now, council was told Monday night.
"The sump in the bottom of the floor has started to come away from the rest of the structure. They've braced that up and will continue to brace it up once they have the materials available. It will be fixed on a temporary basis until we can build a new hall," said city commissioner Robert Smith.
Teleposts and beams were installed, and now that the truck can be moved out, bridge planks will be laid down to enable the truck to safely cross the sump pit area.
Weyburn's economic development office is going to be phased out in favor of a more regional approach, with the function to be handled by SEREDA (Southeast Regional Economic Development Authority). Accordingly, economic development coordinator Nester Budney's position will be terminated with the city as of March 31 of this year.
The SEREDA group will be holding a strategic planning session on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 23 and 24 at the Elks Hall. The meeting will be open to all members of council, with Ald. Hamm attending as a member of the community development committee.
Ald. Pickering noted that there will be more opportunities to obtain provincial and federal grants if economic development is undertaken in a regional way, including the surrounding area.
"It's a natural progression with what we've been doing with Weyburn 2020, moving to a regional concept rather than a localized concept," added Ald. Hamm.
"We feel we'll be getting a bigger bang for our buck by going regional. The province funds these kinds of things, and we'll contribute to the regional economic development kitty, probably on a per capita basis," said Mayor Schlosser.
A group will be going from Weyburn to Humboldt on Jan. 21 to meet with the Carlton Trail REDA on how that regional economic development group got started, and what pitfalls they encountered that Weyburn can avoid.
As part of the new direction for economic development by the city, council wants the mayor and city commissioner to be more "front-line" in terms of promoting the city.
The SEREDA, along with Sunrise Community Futures, will also be looking at setting up a regional business resource centre.
The one issue left outstanding, said Ald. Hamm, will be the participation of the business community.
"A successful economic development program requires active participation by the business community. We looked at how they could be mobilized, and to that end a suggestion was made to have a group of people who would assist the mayor as a consulting group," said Ald. Hamm, adding that this has not yet been acted upon.
He and the mayor will be attending a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Jan. 20, to obtain some input from the business community on the direction of economic development.
The resolution of Bellringer's purchase of the Plains Food Fibre plant in Weyburn may come within the next few days, following a conference call by the city with Bellringer's solicitor on Friday.
Mayor Schlosser, commissioner Smith and economic development coordinator Budney held the phone conference with the lawyer who is helping put the funding together for the project, council was told Monday.
"He assured us everything was falling into place and he hoped all the paperwork would be done in the next couple of days. He hopes they'll be getting hold of us this week to tell us when they're coming to make a tour of the facility and to have the cheque for us," said the mayor.
"Hopefully this is going to work out. Our lawyer feels all the paperwork is falling in place the way it should, to meet our deadline of Jan. 31st," he added.
Bellringer Resources of Calgary has arranged for funding through an American banking institution for the main payment of $1.2 million to purchase Plains Food Fibre. The remainder of the purchase price, about $400,000, will be paid off in a seven-year mortgage to be arranged with the city.
The tentative mill rates have been set for the payment of 1998 property taxes, to enable city residents to take advantage of a five per cent discount if the taxes are paid in January.
The council had served notice on Dec. 22 it would be passing the mill rate, as it was also going to make the first move towards the elimination of the business tax. The city plans to have the business tax completely removed by the year 2000; after asking for public input, the city only received "a couple of calls" from people who were concerned about any increase in the mill rates, said comptroller Stan Runne.
The mill rates were changed to reflect a shift of one-third of the business tax; the change will see one per cent added to the residential levies, with the balance added to the commercial/industrial classification, which includes land and improvements.
Mr. Runne said he and department personnel also met with Chamber of Commerce representatives, who were concerned with the higher values being applied to commercial and industrial properties. He noted that businesses will go from paying 2.53 times as much as residential property owners, to 2.2 times as much.
The one per cent addition will add about $1 per month for the owner of a home assessed at around $60,000, he said. This one per cent increase is also slated for the next two years, as the business tax is reduced by a third each year until it has been removed.
A new head librarian has been named by the Weyburn Library Board, said board member Ald. Button.
Murray Munn, currently working in Vancouver, will begin his new position on Monday, Feb. 2. He was born and raised in Saskatchewan, growing up in Regina. He worked in Winnipeg prior to his current position in Vancouver.
Mr. Munn will be taking over the position left vacant by Julie Curry, who took up a job in Moose Jaw.
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