September 14, 2011
Council delays arena
work
by Vance Gutzman
Extensive and expensive upgrades to the Deep River Arena have been put
on ice.
For the time being, anyhow.
Town council decided last week to proceed with the installation of a
fire alarm and detection system in the arena, but put on hold the
tendering of contracts for both the installation of sprinkler systems
and retrofit work.
The decision to do so follows up from a report that was presented to
council in July, in which a recommendation was made to spend more than
$300,000 on capital upgrades to the arena to address fire safety
deficiencies.
In August, council members decided to hold off on making any decisions
on the report's recommendations until they could tour the facility to
get a first-hand look at required work.
That tour took place on August 23, though just two council members
(Mayor David Thompson and Deputy Mayor Mary MacCafferty) took part,
accompanied by Deep River Fire Service officials, the town's recreation
manager, Shelly Cull, and its chief administrative officer, Michelle
Larose.
In her report to council last week, Larose noted that, following the
arena tour, staff were asked to provide a quote as to the cost of
performing the arena retrofits without the installation of wet and dry
sprinkler systems.
A construction company was subsequently consulted and it gave a
broad-based quote of anywhere between $280,000 and $380,000 for the
work, sans sprinklers, while the original estimate for the retrofit
with the sprinkler systems was $305,000.
In her report, Larose stated that council really had just two options -
perform the retrofit work with or without the sprinkler systems, and
she was recommending the first such option.
"This option is more cost-effective as compared to performing the
retrofit work without installing sprinkler systems in the arena,"
Larose stated.
"After receiving the original quote for the sprinkler systems, it was
thought that, when tendered, the price from competitors may me much
less than originally quoted."
Performing the retrofit work without the sprinklers, she cautioned,
would be expensive and time-consuming.
"The estimated cost to perform the work (without the sprinklers) would
potentially be much more that what would be required with a sprinkler
system," Larose's report stated.
"In addition to the cost, we would likely have to tear out or cover a
significant amount of the walls in the foyer area, thus taking away
from the look of the front part of the building."
The chief administrative officer actually gave council a third,
unpalatable, option as well - do nothing, in which case the building
would have to be closed to the public.
So with all that in mind, and the third option obviously off the table,
a three-part resolution had been drafted for last week's council
meeting.
The resolution would enable the town to proceed immediately with the
installation of a fire alarm and detection system in the arena.
The resolution would have also initiated the tendering process for the
contracts to install the sprinkler systems and perform the retrofit
work.
The resolution went on to state that the tender for the contract of the
sprinkler system would be issued for both the wet and dry systems,
though the installation of the dry sprinkler system, for the ice
surface portion of the arena would be done next year, following the
regular ice season.
"The main concern right now is the fire alarm and detection systems, so
we can show our due diligence for the Ontario Fire Marshal," Larose
told council.
Council agreed with her on that point, but balked at proceeding with
the other portions of the resolution.
"I'm certainly in favour of going ahead with the fire alarm and
detection systems," Councillor Terry Myers said.
"But I'm reluctant to be convinced that we need a dry sprinkler system
over the ice surface."
Myers went on to state that council should explore other options, such
as possibly closing the upstairs mezzanine, before proceeding any
further with the sprinkler tenders.
MacCafferty, who took part in the tour, said it was a worthwhile
endeavour.
"It was very useful to see where the deficiencies were," MacCafferty
said.
"And the fire chief (Gene Thompson) was showing us some options that
could save us some costs."
That being said, the deputy mayor cautioned the rest of council that
even with cost-savings, the work will still cost the town dearly.
"There's no cheap answer to this, and there's no shortcuts," she said.
Thompson, who also took part in the tour, said last week he liked
Myers' suggestion that the town take a closer look at the mezzanine.
"We'd never compromise public safety to save money," the mayor said.
"But there is a second floor to that facility that is dramatically
under-used."
Thompson went on to state that a lot of the actual retrofitting work
that needs to be done to address the deficiencies is pretty basic
stuff, such as patching holes in walls and installing door closures -
and may not necessitate being tendered at all.
"The users of the facility are very keen to have it stay open, and
would be willing participants," Thompson said, suggesting that
volunteer labour could be used to address many of he deficiencies.
The chief administrative officer, however, cautioned council about the
liability issues that could be associated with going the route of
volunteer labour, rather than certified contractors.
"That's part of the problem we're in now," Larose said.
"When it was originally done, it wasn't up to code."
Myers, who moved the original resolution addressing all components of
the retrofit work, including the sprinklers, suggested striking most of
its wording, thus leaving the town, for now, tasked with the immediate
installation of a fire alarm and detection system for the arena.
"Whatever it ends up costing to make our arena safe, that's what it
will cost, but I think there's some issues that need to be explored
further," he said.
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