Owen Sound council has decided against moving forward with the next phase of the Downtown River Precinct project this year, after tender bids came in nearly $1-million over budget.
Council resolved in a 7-2 recorded vote at its meeting Monday to reject a staff recommendation to award a $2.72-million contract for the reconstruction of the 900 block of 1st Avenue East. The city had allocated about $1.8-million in its 2023 capital plan for the project.
Councillors Marion Koepke and Jon Farmer were the only councillors who voted in favour of awarding the contract. Mayor Ian Boddy, Deputy Mayor Scott Greig, and councillors Suneet Kukreja, Carol Merton, Travis Dodd, Brock Hamley and Melanie Middlebro’ voted against it.
A boardwalk, walkways, paving stones and new lighting are some of the features included in the design concept for the revitalization of 1st Avenue East, between 9th and 10th Streets.
It’s the second time the project has been delayed over cost concerns. Last year, council put it out to tender but received only one bid of $2.7-million. Some alterations were made to try to lower the cost before it was re-tendered, but the bottom line remained the same in terms of cost for the city.
“At a certain point, I think we have to admit defeat. And I think close to $1-million over what we originally budgeted is too far for me,” Hamley says. “And we all know these projects, when you get into them and these unforeseen costs, this could spiral even further out of control.”
Deputy Mayor Greig: “It’s certainly very unfortunate the tenders came in this high. It would look great, it would look wonderful. But at (nearly $1-million) over it’s not a tender I would feel comfortable with.”
Middlebro’ says she approached many of the businesses in the 900 block of 1st Avenue East to gauge their thoughts on the project, and it was a “real mixed-bag of responses.”
“I had five that were fully in support, six that were not in support. A couple of unsures. Some of the ‘yes’ were with asterisk that they loved the idea of the project, but are a little concerned about the cost,” Middlebro’ explains, saying she talked to 14 different businesses. “Some of the ‘Nos’ were emphatic. They consider that to be a working street and they have real concerns about the project and how it might interfere with freight deliveries to their businesses, impact on parking. They had a number of different concerns.”
Farmer, who voted in favour of moving ahead with the project despite the overbudget tender bids, told his colleagues the cost is only going to get higher to do this down the road.
“The downtown is an area where our community gathers and if we don’t create space for that then we’re pushing out, not everyone, because some people can afford to pay for a cup of coffee to have a nice place to sit. But not everyone can,” he says. “It’s important everyone have access to those beautiful public spaces, and we’re never going to get it at a better price then we see before us, even though we don’t want to pay this price.”
Council ended up passing a subsequent motion to keep Phase 2 of the Downtown River Precinct project in the city’s multi-year capital plan, and have it brought back for review at a future budget meeting.
The first phase — a $2.93-million revamp of 1st Avenue East between 8th and 9th Streets — was completed in 2019.