The new pool project is forging ahead, and quickly.
During last week’s Town of Athabasca council meeting, council moved to go ahead with reviewing the Requests For Quotations that were received from potential bidders.
Once those are reviewed and scored, the process will move into the bidding phase.
During their Feb. 21 meeting, while town council was voting on who should assist interim chief administrative officer Doug Topinka on reviewing the firm qualifications, Coun. Tanu Evans noted that he “won’t vote for anything that furthers this project until this council actually has a conversation (about financing).”
While town council has committed to a $5 million debenture for facility construction – and Athabasca County council has voted to cover 60 per cent of the capital costs – there have to be discussions about where operations funding will come from, as well.
Almost undoubtedly, costs will be higher than predicted. Think back to our article about Barrhead’s new aquatic centre in November.
“These facilities are a lot different from they were in 1977,” said Martin Taylor, the Town of Barrhead’s chief administrative officer. “These facilities are worth $12, $15, $20 million dollars. You need qualified staff to manage them, to keep them built.”
Add this to the current Multiplex operations deficit, which last year was $971,469 and the 2017 draft budget predicts at $1,100,798 deficit. Then throw maintenance and utility costs for a water slide, lazy river and new fitness centre on top, and you’ll be looking at quite a pretty sports and recreation bill to split among the region’s residents and businesses.
There has already been a lot of cash spilled for this project. Topinka confirmed there is a cost to the RFQs, but was not able to say how much at this point.
Reviewing the RFQs is a task set to take two weeks, and then bids will be requested. It takes firms time and effort to put forth proposals, so those bids will also cost money.
Building a hollow shell is easy. Financing it through its lifespan requires more forethought and planning. Let’s make sure we do it right.
