COUNCIL UNANIMOUSLY SUPPORTS PROJECT: Worth the risk

City council has reinforced its unanimous support for Owen Sound’s $38-million recreation centre project, even though the city’s cost to build the complex could more than triple an original estimate.
The revised $16.6 million projected cost to the city would force Owen Sound to increase what it raises through property taxes by 3.4%, according to a report by city manager Jim Harrold. It would take 17 years, at that rate, starting in 2012, to pay off a debenture for the city’s contribution.

Emergency meeting tomorrow

City council will meet at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) to discuss the next steps in the regional recreation centre project.

The city is expected to learn tomorrow whether or not the feds will extend a deadline for completion beyond March 31, 2011. After that, council will vote on a tender for excavation work at Victoria Park.

People showed up in droves last night to show support for the facility.

Community rallies for rec centre

A public meeting to discuss Owen Sound’s 2010 budget turned into a rally to show support for the behind-schedule regional recreation centre project.
About 300 people crowded into a room at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre Monday night for the meeting. Some carried shovels or signs with messages of support for the $38-million project.
“We’re just trying to let city council know that the recreation centre is something that needs to be brought to fruition,” said Owen Sound resident Donna Twining, who created pro-rec-centre placards taped to garden shovels.
The large show of support for the complex was due, in part, to comments made by Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners that the recreation centre will not likely be substantially completed by March 31, 2011, as required by the senior levels of government to ensure two-thirds funding. She told The Sun Times Friday that she would not support spending more than the $8.6 million in taxpayer money already committed by the city for the project.
Lovell Stanners told the crowd Monday night that the project is five to six months behind schedule, due to soil problems at Victoria Park.
The city has asked the provincial and federal governments to extend the deadline for “substantial completion.” Even though Infrastructure Canada and Ontario’s municipal affairs ministry told The Sun Times that no extensions will be granted, Lovell Stanners said the city is still hopeful it will happen. She said council expects an answer Wednesday.

No deadline extension: feds

Courtesy: http://www.owensound.ca

Infrastructure Canada tells The Sun Times that it won’t yank funding for Owen Sound’s multi-million-dollar regional recreation centre if the project isn’t finished by the March 31, 2011, deadline. However, the feds say it will only fund two-thirds of the cost of what is completed up to that date. Deadline extensions will not be granted, a government source says. Working on the full story for tomorrow’s paper.

Rec centre deadline in doubt

Owen Sound’s $38 million regional recreation centre project is months behind schedule and the mayor says it’s doubtful the complex will be finished in time to meet a government deadline.

Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners and other city officials will meet today with high-ranking provincial representatives to discuss the consequences of not “substantially” completing the project by the March 31, 2011, deadline.

“We need to have some assurance that if we’re not substantially complete by March we won’t lose our funding,” Lovell Stanners said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

The last thing the city wants is to find out after the deadline that the building is not complete enough to meet the conditions of the funding agreement and be on the hook for the entire cost.

The mayor, along with city/county Coun. Arlene Wright and city manager Jim Harrold, are meeting with cabinet ministers and hobnobbing with other municipal politicians this week at an Ontario Good Roads Association conference in Toronto.

They have a meeting scheduled today with Huron-Bruce MPP and Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Carol Mitchell. Her ministry administers the Building Canada program, which awarded Owen Sound two-thirds funding for the recreation centre project.

Lovell Stanners said the city delegation is looking for a clear definition of “substantially complete” and “what happens” if the criteria cannot be met by the deadline set out in the Building Canada funding agreement.

The provincial and federal governments have committed to pay $11 million apiece towards the recreation centre cost. The other $16 million is planned to be financed by Owen Sound, the Family Y, Georgian Bluffs and a fundraising campaign.

The project hit a snag late last year when soil samples revealed the earth at the Victoria Park building site could not bear the weight of the recreation complex. Soil needs to be hauled away and replaced with rocky earth. The problem increased an already over-budget cost estimate by about $1 million.

Coun. Jim McManaman, chairman of the recreation centre steering committee, said there has always been a concern with the funding agreement’s “tight” timeline, but the soil problem has delayed the construction schedule even further.

A project charter, approved by city council in August, set Nov. 30 as the date for construction to begin. Almost three months later, the project has not yet started. A tender for groundwork closes Friday.

McManaman said city officials plan to also speak with Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MP Larry Miller about the deadline.

He said the city believes the project will meet the goals of the Building Canada program — to stimulate the local economy and create jobs — whether it is finished by March 31, 2011, or later.

“We’re still trying to define what substantially complete means. That would be the first thing. And we’ve been working very hard with our architect and construction manager to try to compress the timeline as best we can, keeping in mind we still want quality,” he said.