It's back to the drawing board for municipal staff in Powassan after a tender to repair the town-owned pool came in at more than twice the estimated cost.
Mayor Peter McIsaac says the municipality budgeted $40,000 to rehabilitate the pool so it can reopen for the 2021 summer.
However, McIsaac says the bid to do the work was more than $100,000.
"So we've asked staff to look at what can be removed from the tender to lower the cost," he says.
The goal is to get a revised tender back to council so the work can begin this fall or next spring at the latest, to allow the pool to reopen next June.
McIsaac says a report last year identified repairs the pool would need, such as the concrete surface around the pool and cracks in the actual pool structure, reparging the pool's upper portion and painting it.
McIsaac says the elements of the work removed from the revised tender will be performed in-house.
He's hopeful that with staff doing some of the work, any revised bids that come back to the municipality "will be closer to what we anticipated when we budgeted for it.”
McIsaac says municipal staff are very good at putting together tenders so it was surprising when the bid came in at more than double what was budgeted.
"But, it happens sometimes," he admits. "It's not something we can't handle. And we'll deal with it in the most efficient possible way to limit increases to the taxpayer."
Powassan decided to keep the pool closed this year so it could carry out the much-needed repairs.
The pool was built in 1957 by the Powassan Lions Club and later assumed by the municipality.
In moving ahead with a tender to repair the facility, council also is asking staff to work on a replacement cost for the pool.
"We've gotten 63 great years out of the existing pool," McIsaac says.
"There's going to be a cost analysis of either repairing the pool or replacing it. And if we feel that if we spend a little extra and replace the pool, we (could) get another 63 years."
Councillors are on board with comparing the replacement cost versus repairing the pool.
If council opts for a new pool, Coun. Debbi Piekarski suggests it could look for local partners to share the cost.
McIsaac says if the number crunching points to a new pool, then another option for the community is to make minimal repairs to the existing pool so it can reopen next June and then move ahead with a new pool for the 2022 season.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative withThe North Bay Nugget. LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.
