Oversight adds cost of renovation project

(Staff) — For the second time in six months, Summerland taxpayers are topping up the budget to renovate the community’s arts and cultural centre.

Council at its meeting Monday unanimously approved pulling $71,000 from the district’s coffers to cover the unexpected costs to improve the publicly owned building at the corner of Wharton Street and Prairie Valley Road.

Since the project — which had an initial budget of $492,000 — began in March, the district has issued 19 change orders at an additional cost of about $97,000, according to a report from Brad Dollevoet, director of development services.

“The majority of the change orders were due to the assumption made by our architect that certain walls were fire-rated partitions when they were not,” wrote Dollevoet.

“Once the walls were opened up, it was determined that these walls were not fire-rated, and that the walls would need to be re-constructed as fire-rated separations to meet the minimum life safety requirements of the BC Building Code.”

Dollevoet pegged the addied cost for the fire separations at $66,000.

Cal Meiklejohn, whose Penticton-based architectural firm designed the project, didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.

To cover the overage, council approved withdrawing $36,000 from the land sale reserve — which will leave $541,000 in the bank — and reallocating $35,000 that was leftover from the museum roof replacement. The project’s contingency funds have also been drained.

Council in February scaled back the arts centre renovation and directed a separate $129,000 from the land sale reserve towards it after construction bids came in over budget.

Grants obtained by the Summerland Community Arts Council are contributing another $176,000 to the build.

The renovation, which has been in the works since 2017, includes upgrades to the architectural, mechanical and electrical systems, a new administrative office, signage and accessibility improvements to the building.