Capital Plan Raises Questions
Prince George, B.C.- The Capital Plan for 2015 calls for nearly $30 million dollars in projects that are funded, another $13 million worth of projects that are not yet funded.
Councillor Albert Koehler wanted to peel about $600 thousand dollars from the funded list . There are more than 60 items on the “funded list” for next year, including:
- $100 thousand for traffic lights at 9th and Victoria to handle traffic flow to the Delta Hotel
- $750 thousand for a park behind the new WIDC building, of which $330 thousand is a provincial grant, $170 thousand from capital reserve and the balance from Development Cost Charges
- $595 thousand to replace the roof on the Coliseum
- $160 thousand to upgrade the 2nd Avenue Parkade
- $500 thousand for repairs to a section of Hofferkamp Road which is sliding around McMillan Creek
- $7 million dollars for road rehabilitation (funded through road levy and gas tax)
- $250 thousand for sidewalk upgrades (funded through General Infrastructure fund)
- $500 thousand for replacing the Masich Place Stadium Track
City Manager Beth James said it is important for Council to understand the level of scrutiny the capital plan has gone under, “We’ve spent more than 9 hours going over item by item, and this is the plan we have come up with.”
Koehler says this is not the eleventh hour, there is time to review the capital plan. Mayor Green agreed, reminding Council that Council directed Administration to come back with a budget scenario that would include 2.5% and a 1.5% increase scenarios. That didn’t happen. The budget presented was based on a 2.5% increase only.
So Council opted to review some projects to see if they could be held off, or spread over two years. But when all was said and done, the items on the list, remain on the list, mostly because of safety issues, some because of agreements with other parties which require City funding.
Councillor Cameron Stolz asked if it was possible to delay repairing the Coliseum roof, and relocate the Spruce Kings to the new Kin1 centre, but City Manager Beth James says there is a contractual commitment with the Spruce Kings as the anchor tenant to the Coliseum, so she would have to examine the contract before making comment.
The roof repair cost is close to $600 thousand dollars. The Coliseum has cost the City significant dollars in the recent years, “We have spent way over $2 million dollars to fix something that is not fixed” says Councillor Dave Wilbur about the proposed repairs to the Coliseum roof. Councillor Wilbur also called on Staff to see if there is any guarantee on past roof repairs.
Councillor Dave Wilbur called for the renovation to the Library entrance be examined. He called for a scope of work to be done on the costs of the project by June 30th of next year, so it could be added to the 2016 capital budget discussion. (right now it is on the 2017 unfunded list) Council approved setting aside up to $200 thousand dollars from the capital expenditures reserve to complete that review.
Councillor Brian Skakun says a different path could have been charted if the true estimates of the project were known. It was initially reported the cost would be $2.5 million but the most recent estimate of the scope of the work would put the price tag over $7 million.
Comments
$700 thousand for a park behind the WIDC building sounds ridiculous to me, regardless of grant money paying for part of it! Who is going to frequent it? A new picnic shelter at Fort George Park makes more sense to me. And definitely a better entrance to the library should have priority.
I’m a huge fan of more park space downtown, or at least a significant upgrade to existing one (maybe two) green spaces between buildings. For all of the people that work downtown there is nowhere to go outside and eat lunch, relax, etc. Hopefully this addresses the current lack of space.
The main thing that worries me is that they’re planning on putting this park right next to a bar (Heartbreakers). Even if they light the park like a stadium, the drunks are going to tear it apart on Friday and Saturday nights.
They can’t even afford to maintain the parks they have! Let’s finish the Hotel before putting lights up!
Instead of funding a light at 9th and Victoria, Council should be asking what’s going on with the Delta hotel. Nice eyesore for the 2015 CWG. A Million bucks on the Civic Centre plaza and you’re going to be looking at an abandoned concrete bunker. What’s that going to cost us to get rid of in a few years.
Didn’t we just pay to tear Millennium Park down because of the the type of people using it. Now let build another one, great thinking!
Wilbur should check his numbers. “We have spent way over $2 million dollars to fix something that is not fixed” Really? I doubt very much that they have spent 20,000.00 on roof repairs, let alone 2 million!These guys all sit there spouting off BS until pretty soon they all believe each other.
Summit, while I understand that downtown workers would like to sit outside and eat their lunches during the five months of decent weather we may have for it, I think the cost of building a park there, nevermind the maintenance of it is not a priority. If you want to eat your lunch outside, there’s lots of park benches along side the courthouse.
Move the Kings to kin 1? Come on cam?
They should scrap “needle park” as it will be known in a few years time.
If it’s the new Delta hotel thats going to be causing the problem with traffic shouldn’t it be Delta who pays to fix the problem ?
Why is it always the taxpayers of this city fixing problem for private industry ?
Please dont say thats how we get to have those industries…if thats the case then tell them to go home . My wallet is getting way to thin.
“We’ve spent more than 9 hours going over item by item”
thats not a lot of time for a budget this size…maybe appropriate if you are looking two years out.
It would be really informative and interesting.
To see the complete list of funded items.
@logical One, all that info is availble on the city site. the PDF is long, but not to difficult to navigate.
This park behind the WIDC is going to serve the new bus exchange that will be built there. We wont even recognize the place after they are done with it, looking forward to seeing the changes.
Not a word about the 4 Seasons pool. Hmmm..
I agree Jimmi – 9 hours is not much time to develop a 30 million dollar budget. In fact it’s positively scary. What kind of mickey mouse outfit is running City Hall?
red2b:”These guys all sit there spouting off BS until pretty soon they all believe each other.”
Remember that (according to Brian Skakun) the councillors are not getting more information than the ordinary citizen, of which I am one! I have no idea how much was spent on Coliseum roof repairs and apparently Wilbur has no idea either!
No surprise here!
I agree with some of these comments. How about we see the hotel complete before we do any traffic lights on 9th…
I agree that 9 hours is not a lot of time to spend on a budget of this magnitude. I spend more time than that on my paltry budget for my business. It is quite amusing to see all of these councilors spinning for the public trying to get re-elected. Remember that many of the current councilors have been there for all of the rate increases we have experienced over the past decade. They can’t all have voted no or the increases would have never passed. The “we don’t get no information” line is wearing very thin. Skakun you are not the messiah so get over yourself.
Here’s an idea for you guys that live in George. Get off your but and get your neigbour to vote at election time. As long as only 27% of the electorate vote your going to have poor city management.
The Mayor got $80,000.00 for her campaign so who do you think the mayor will look after during her term I office ?
So get off your butt get out there and run a campaign like never before, get people interested in your City.
Nice day in Abby. No rain yet. Is my spelling OK?
Cheers
You can’t relocate the Spruce Kings to Kin 1 Mr Stolz unless you want to relieve them of their ability to pay their bills. You are listening to radio suggestions by Jason Luke and other candidates and trying to look like an innovative thinker to get reelected without checking into the facts first.
The seating for the Kin 1 after renovations is approximately 800 plus an additional 200 in the balconies. The seating for the Coliseum is 1,772 plus SRO which increases it to over 2,100. Should we re-renovate Kin 1 for more seating – maybe a suggestion you should have had when you voted on Kin 1 renovation after Dan Rogers brought it back to council? Maybe we should have Jason Luke in your chair so he can raise these questions at the right time…?
“$500 thousand for replacing the Masich Place Stadium Track”
Sure hope they have upped the user fees to pay for that.
Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014 @ 9:14 AM by oneup482 AND OTHERS
“I agree that 9 hours is not a lot of time to spend on a budget of this magnitude”
Sorry have to add a comment to this one as well. I also agree. Considering that in order to print up a few more columns in a report is estimated at 5 hours Beth James should have known that comment would get people spitting out their morning coffee.
@axman, I sure hope they up your taxes, and no one else, to pay for that. Just cause ur grumpy.
lbear
The Four Seasons is on the 2014 capital plan and even though it is high priority it is on the unfunded list looking for a spare 2.2 million this year. Ignore it for another year or two and it will be beyond repair like the old cop shop.
“0948 FSLP-Bldg Envelope Reconstruction
PSF
High priority requirement to replace exterior building envelope materials and improve insulation and air barriers. This is a multi-year project totalling
$3,200,000 Unfunded Future Projects $2,200”
The city has spent millions over the last few years to purchase and implement a CMMS-computerized maintenance management system- but has no money left to manage maintenance required. Ironic.
Thanks Sparrow. As soon as the city gets enough complaints about how dirty the locker rooms have become, they’ll shut the place down.
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