Police station construction may start in October
Work could begin by October on the construction of a new police detachment for St. Catharines.
And the new Niagara Region Police facility at Welland and Geneva streets is expected to fall within its budget of more than $ 17 million.
Niagara Region project manager Mislav Koren said detailed designs for the facility are in development and are expected to be completed by July, after which the Region will request tenders from developers interested in building the facility.
“We anticipate a shovel in the ground by approximately October of this year,” Koren said while updating members of the Region’s corporate services committee Wednesday.
In his report, Koren said the latest cost estimates for the 2,700- square- metre facility have been updated to $ 17,175,000, and pointed out there are “a number of risks and assumptions associated with the estimate.”
“It’s great that it’s within the envelope that has been approved by council,” said Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn.
Augustyn, however, is also concerned about the risks associated with the estimate.
Acting corporate services commissioner Jason Burgess said Region staff reviewed the cost estimate twice, but added it could increase or decrease by about 20 per cent.
“It’s plus or minus 20 and there’s always risk to that. You can hire professionals to do cost estimates but at the end of the day, when the tenders go out, the tenders are what rule the price at that time,” he said. “But we are fairly confident we have de- risked a lot of the items in this.”
For instance, one of the unknown aspects of the project was the cost of cleaning up the site for the facility. That work has since been completed at a cost of $ 3.3 million, which includes the cost of purchasing the property and cleaning it up.
“We have done a very good job on the site so there are no issues at this point in time,” he said.
Niagara Falls Coun. Bob Gale said the Region’s police services board under his leadership has been “pains in the neck … on sending this back and saying it has to be under $ 17.2 million.”
“We know it’s in the hands of a tender down the way, but we hope we have been conservative enough that it’ll come under budget,” Gale said.
“October will be great, if it is then, but as long as we get it under cost and what we want, that’s all I care.”