Council looks at new option for upgrading Public Works Yard
Councillor Ben Geselbracht spoke in favour of option three saying that there has been a need for a new administration building for the last ten years. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7 fm
The City of Nanaimo is reevaluating its plan to make upgrades to the Public Works Yard on Labieux Road.
At a Governance and Priorities meeting on Monday, June 24, staff presented council with options for the project.
The project is to upgrade the Public Works Yard first built in the 1960s.
Plans to borrow money for the upgrades have already been pushed back due to two failed alternative approval processes (AAP).
Under provincial law municipalities that want to take out substantial long-term loans are required to seek the consent of voters through a referendum or AAP.
At the meeting, council was presented with three funding options for the facility's upgrades.
Option one is essentially the same plan as was presented to the public during the cancelled AAP processes. It would borrow $48 million for phase one of upgrades to the public works yard. The budget for this option was first announced as $48.5 million but has been lowered due to the city securing grant funding from the BC Active Transportation Grant to use for the Beban Park Trail.
It would include upgrading the fleet maintenance building, stormwater management, Beban Park Trail and the fire training tower fuel conversion.
The second option presented to council would only initially borrow $44 million to upgrade the fleet maintenance building and stormwater management. This would remove the upgrades to the Beban Park Trail and the fire training tower fuel conversion from the scope of the project. Grant money would be lost with this option.
Both options one and two would have anticipated future borrowing needs to complete the remaining phases later on.
The third plan presented to council, dubbed option three, would see the biggest initial borrowing need at $90 million but would upgrade what the City said are the two highest priority items for the Public Works Yard–the Fleet Maintenance Building and the Administration building– in a single phase. This option would also upgrade the stormwater management system.
Option three would have no anticipated future borrowing to complete the remaining phases of the facility.
City staff said that because of inflation and cost escalation approximately $10 million would be saved by building the fleet maintenance and administration buildings at the same time.
During the discussion period, options one and three were the focus of the council, with Mayor Leonard Krog saying the second option did not make sense to him.
“Option two, for instance, is off the table completely,” Krog said. “For me, it's kind of like me being asked to attend an audience with King Charles, going out buying new shoes, new suit, fully dressed, and then skipping the haircut, the smallest cost of the whole affair.”
Krog said he favours option one as it has already been supported by council.
“We put it in front of the people because we believed it was the right approach. It was the correct approach,” she said. “It was the logical approach. It was the staff recommended approach.”
Councillor Ian Thorpe also favours option one, saying staying with the original plan is the right approach as it has already been seen as the preferred option by council and staff.
“I think we simply need to have the courage to stay the course and say what we proposed was a good project and it was going to be done in a good way,” Thorpe said.
Councillor Hilary Eastmure favoured option three, saying it addresses concerns around the unclear future borrowing needed for the future phases with the other options. As well she says she favours the third option as it focuses on the most important pieces at the facilities.
“It also looks after the parts I'm actually a lot more concerned about, which are the administration and the working space for other employees,” Eastmure said. “It doesn't make any sense to build a standalone fleet maintenance building, I think rolling that together with the admin space makes so much more sense. And just getting it done with this one APP for the future borrowing.”
Councillor Ben Geselbracht also spoke in favour of option three saying that there has been a need for a new administration building for the last ten years.
“I know of several municipal employees–ex-municipal employees–that worked out of that place and they left for a large reason because they just didn't want to come to work for in a stuffy cubicle in a portable modular building for the amount of responsibility that they had,” Geselbracht said.
Councillor Janice Perrino said that while a ‘one and done’ solution seems like the best idea, she agrees with Thorpe and Krog's worry about changing the plan after communicating the original one so much to the public
“I just think going back out and saying, ‘oh, now we're going to pick another project, but it's actually double’ is a dangerous move and that really does concern me,” Perrino said.
She said she wishes the council had seen option three a year ago when making the original plan.
“I think it's really tough on the community to understand how you went from one [option], you had two AAPs, they both failed for different reasons, now you're coming back and asking for double the amount,” Perrino said. “Even though we know at this table that it makes better sense, I just worry about how that perception is to the general public and so I'm still going to vote for option one.”
In the end, Councillor Paul Manly, Councillor Erin Hemmens, Geselbracht and Eastmure voted in favour of supporting option three, with Thorpe, Perrino, and the mayor opposed.
Councillors Sheryl Armstrong and Tyler Brown were absent from voting.
Option three will be presented to council at a future city council meeting.
CHLY’s Joe Pugh sat down with the mayor following the Monday meeting to discuss the future of the project.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.