Future of Fourth Ave City Yard As Clear As Sludge
Saturday, July 21, 2012 @ 4:37 AM
(New Development Services building sits beside 18th Avenue–Opinion 250 photos)
Prince George, B.C. – Construction of the new $2 million administration building at the 18th Avenue public works yard continues, with a November completion date in sight.
City of Prince George Construction Supervisor Leland Hansen says construction of the ten-thousand square foot building is at the structural stage right now, doing all the framing. “The roof will probably be going on in two weeks time. We should be completed in early November”, at which time all of the personnel, both administrative and unionized employees, will be moving to 18th Avenue. Hansen says all of the equipment now at 4th Avenue will also be going to 18th. “When it was bought back in 1998 or ’99, that was the whole plan was to consolidate all in the one yard. 18th Avenue yard is actually the centroid of Prince George when you look at the operations that public works (now officially known as Development Services) carries out. So in terms of efficiencies that’s kind of where it’s at. And trying to get them all on one site was the plan.”
Purchasing, Streets, the welding shop, sign shop, heavy duty mechanics, Parks and Sanitation are already located at 18th Avenue. This move is meant to get all of the rest of the public works operations in the one spot.
Hansen can’t say what will happen to the 4th Avenue yard once the move is made. “I’m not sure what the plans are for 4th Avenue at this point. You probably have to go farther up the ladder than me. I’m just supposed to, uh, look after it and keep it safe.”
Rob Whitwam, Director of Public Safety and Civic Facilities, says he doesn’t know what the future holds for the 4th Avenue yard. “Well I guess that’s a conversation that we need to have regarding if it’s to become available to the market. There have been Smart Growth on the Ground suggestions for some parkway along there and I’m not sure what that alignment looks like so I don’t have all the detail on that. I don’t know that it’s totally up in the air. I recall that that (parkway) had been identified for part of that corridor through the Smart Growth on the Ground process but I’m not sure where we sit in terms of what exactly is required, if any of that property is required as part of that initiative and I guess at this point, even if there’s any funding for it.”
Whitwam says it will be some time in the future, like next year, before any decision is made on the 4th Avenue yard. “I would assume that would be the case, ya.”
Comments
That’s an interesting and unusual editorial choice to include the “um” and the “ya” type of quotes.
That choice (as realistic as it is) may backfire (quotes may double in length) as the talk of some people consists of a very high number of “ums” “uhs” “yahs” and other dithering sounds. Some start every sentence with at least one “um” and throw in a liberal amount of these randomly and relentlessly throughout.
That is how our former PM Paul Martin got the name Ditherer.
Scientists have identified the cause of umming and awing as a short circuit in the brain which leads to the talking process being put on hold temporarily while the brain gets too busy thinking about how to put the remainder or the next sentence together.
The only thing missing is “ya, that’s the ticket” ala Jon Lovitz;)
What the city needs is a department that will ensure that things move forward in an orderly fashion. I would suggest it be called a Planning Department and it would be headed by someone not “acting” the part.
One has to look no further than the 2012 Capital Spending Summary to see why we are in financial dire straits, the very last UNFUNDED item……wait for it……”100 #903 Long Term Financial Mgmt Plan” ….explains a lot.
Considering what it cost to tear down and clean up the little PG Hotel, I’m thinking the bill to clean up the old city yard will be huge. Unless the plan is to just use it as storage for all the material that is currently across the road.
Reading the city’s capital spending plan can provide hours of fun, such as this jewel.
“This funding will attempt to accommodate significant consulting resources as well as staff backfill”
Glad to see that when you are spending $175,000.00 you will at least make an attempt!
Seems to me that the City has a severe case of memory loss, or they are continuing to play the **shell game**
The City transferred their yard in the Carter light industrial area, right across from their present 18th Avenue location to the East End of 4th Avenue. This transfer was to make way for the soccer fields, and at that time they also transferred the Tennis Courts to the South End of the PG Golf and Curling Club driving range. The soccer fields that were located along higway 16 were sold to the PG Golf Course for their driving range.
The City later purchased the property and buildings on 18th and Ospika from Yellow Head Road and Bridge for approx $5Million dollars, with the intent to move their yard from the East End of 4th to 18th Avenue./ At that time the intent was to sell the property on 4th to offset the cost of buying the 18th Avenue property. (What happened to that plan)
The City is now in the process of selling off the property where they located the Tennis Courts, and relocating the Tennis Courts to the North End of the Golf course building, and selling off the property for a hefty sum. The money from this sale some $800,000.00 will go to do upgrades to the Golf and Curling club facilities. This upgrade is in part because of the 2015 Winter Games, however I doubt that the $800,000.00 will be considered as a games cost.
So you can see that there is a long history attached to the Citys yards in the past number of years. They are now in the process of spending an additional $3 Million on new digs for the purchasing people, and will relocate the yard and all personel to 18th Avenue.
They will then be located right across the street from where they were originally located a number of years ago. Problem is that this game of musical chairs have cost taxpayers in excess of $10 Million dollars and leaves us with empty buildings and empty yard space on 4th Avenue.
That is one reason why we are broke. Who looks into these types of shenagigans, and takes the City to task for wasting money???
Slight correction there Palopu. YRB never owned the property at 18th & Ospika. It was owned by the provincial government and leased to YRB, and Argo, following privatization. YRB moved to their Hart Highway location when the government sold the property to the City.
The story also says the purchasing dep’t. is already located on 18th Ave.
“That’s an interesting and unusual editorial choice to include the “um” and the “ya” type of quotes. “
It’s no secret that the City and this site are at odds. So anything to make the City look a little worse can’t be a bad thing… right?
It’s a shame because it encourages spokespeople to refuse candid live interviews and resort to prepared written (and “safe”) media releases in response to reporters enquiries.
Of course the bad impression a lot people have of the city and the frustration which they dare to express with comments has nothing at all to do with what the city has been doing in the past and what it is still doing in the present.
It’s all undeserved and this site has no evidence to back up any criticism.
Yessir! (Off to the woodshed!).
Thanks for the correction Grammaw.
They have been slowly moving people from 4th Avenue to 18th Avenue over the years.
In any event, my point is. They could just have easily stayed where they were, in the Carter Light Yard, and saved us $10 Million.
Shuffling things around at a huge cost to tax payers seems to be the order of the day.
Will the Core Reveiw look at these type of things to avoid huge costs in the future??
Lenny: “It’s a shame because it encourages spokespeople to refuse candid live interviews and resort to prepared written (and “safe”) media releases in response to reporters enquiries. “
Exactly.
Makes the quotes reflect the real opinion of the spokesperson as they themselves have said they do not know and don’t have the official plans and that those can be found higher up. Makes it for easier reading IMO.
Okay….but lets not lose focus….
The city seems to have a manager and a spokesperson for everything imagineable. Manager of new building, manager of 2x4framing, manager of toilet paper, spokesperson for the manager of toilet paper… a third position so the manager and spokesperson of toilet paper have someone to blame the state of toilet paper on……get my drift ?
Middle: don’t let any facts get in the way of your perception.
Lenny:
Do you work for the chity…?
C’mon Lenny, lets hear some CPG facts !
With a small 500 million dollar modification, the 4th ave yard could become the new Performing Arts centre.
“…to refuse candid live interviews and resort to prepared written (and “safe”) media releases in response to reporters enquiries.”
Written media releases are much better than verbal responses which are usually vague and evasive about giving real answers to the questions that are being asked.
Usually if they say something stupid they claim that their remark is being unfairly quoted out of context and they didn’t have access to all information and a host of other excuses.
A written response is much more solid than a verbal interview which is full of ums and yahs and uhs and no meat on the bones.
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