Approval given

City council has given a stamp of approval to cover $1.4 million in cost overruns to complete a portion of its ambitious waterfront development project.

The funds don't include an estimated $35,000 monthly expense for site security and safety, which to date has totaled $319,000, a number expected to grow as high as $675,000 by project's end.

City manager Tim Commisso said the added costs will force the city to look at possible cuts to the original design for phase one of Prince Arthur's landing, originally estimated to cost $47.5 million. The present estimate is $49.3 million.

"One of the things we're going to have to look at is building some flexibility into our tender projects," Commisso. "It's a challenging project because essentially the last projects that get tendered are at risk."

The original $1.4 million became necessary because of more than 45 changes and upgrades made to the civil works contract, which includes the electrical, sewer, water and storm water systems.

“We require 50- and 30-amp service for the marina, so a significant portion of the money was to ensure there is 50-amp services,” said waterfront project manager Katherine Dugmore following Monday’s committee of the whole meeting at city hall. “If you up that amperage there are significant costs in terms of the infrastructure.

Dugmore said the city has known all along that these improvements were needed, but resisted when asked why they weren’t budgeted for from the start. The electrical changes added $900,000 to the city’s bill.

“We could and we did (know), and that’s really all I’m going to say about that,” she said.

There were other factors, she noted earlier.

“In addition there were site conditions that needed to be addressed through design changes in the field. As you’re going through and digging up this material to lay pipe, we were finding all kinds of things, like old railway trestles to a number of things that required us to make adjustments in the field.”

In addition to the extra cash, the contract will see its completion date pushed back from summer 2010 to sometime next spring.

Dugmore said the city has little wiggle room, as much of the work is done on that particular project, but came in over budget. She pointed out that four of five remaining tenders were expected to come in at or under budget.

“Some of the costs are over and above what we anticipated. We would not be able to do what we’re doing without this in place, but it has, over time, become more expensive than we thought,” she said.

Although she voted to approve the additional funds, at-large Coun. Rebecca Johnson was upset at what she called a significant overrun.

“We really have no choice to pay for this because the work’s been done,” Johnson said. “I’m going to hold my hand up, but I’m not happy about it.”

Johnson was one of eight councillors who voted in favour of the budget change. Two, Couns. Larry Hebert and Linda Rydholm, voted against the plan. Both have consistently opposed the waterfront development since its inception, Hebert because of the condo and hotel locations in Marina Park, Rydholm because of its expense.

Mayor Keith Hobbs, who considered voting against the budget increase, said the city only has about $4 million of wiggle room and plenty of work left to be done, so he was wary of whittling away a third of the waterfront reserves this early in the project.

“We have five more tenders to come in and I can see the potential for this project to be overrun, and that concerns me,” Hobbs said.

The mayor added that when push comes to shove, less is more as far as he’s concerned.
 
“I’d rather take away from the budget than go over budget and cause the taxpayers more burden. That’s the way I would lean, but that’s going to depend on the rest of council, obviously.”

City officials also reiterated that the delay in naming the hotelier does not mean one isn’t in place.

“We have been consistently advised that this development is moving forward for an announcement early in the new year for a hotel,” city manager Tim Commisso said.

A more complete waterfront update is expected before council on Jan. 31.