Higher tender receives council approval for Fairview East Arena upgrade
mliebenberg@prairiepost.com
A more expensive bid for a project to upgrade the Fairview East Arena received approval from councillors at a regular City of Swift Current council meeting, July 27.
They approved the higher bid after listening to a detailed submission by City administration about the reasons that it will make more sense to pay more for the arena upgrades.
Several councillors thanked General Manager of Community Services Jim Jones for his detailed report during their discussion of the motion.
“Particularly with the reasoning behind the decision, it makes it pretty easy for us to have faith in that being a good recommendation,” Councillor Ryan Plewis said.
Councillor Bruce Deg felt administration’s efforts will ensure that the City still receives the best bang for the buck.
“And not necessarily is the lowest bid always the best bid,” he remarked.
Councillor Chris Martens noted that the approved bid is still lower than the amount that was budgeted by the City for this project.
Councillor George Bowditch was happy to see the inclusion of two local businesses in the approved bid. Councillor Pat Friesen considered it a benefit that the approved bidder will complete the project sooner than the lower bid.
The City will receive $195,000 towards the cost of this project from the provincial government’s Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP). The remaining cost of the project will be funded from the City’s capital budget.
The City budgeted an amount of $950,000 for the Fairview East Arena upgrade, but the cost of the approved bid by Stevenson Industrial Refrigeration Ltd. is $876,193.88 (PST included, GST excluded).
This bid by Stevenson, a Saskatchewan company based in Saskatoon, is almost $80,000 higher than another bid. A lower bid of $796,908 was submitted by an Alberta company, but Jones felt the Stevenson bid was certainly the preferred option.
“I think at the end of the day what we looked at is the preparation of the bid by Stevenson,” he said during an online media briefing after the council meeting. “We have a good understanding of Stevenson, because they've been our provider for refrigeration for all of our arenas for quite a few years. But their bid was concise and it named all of their local subcontractors, which we think is very important. And it also listed what we think is the best concrete pour personnel in the business. So really, their bid brought us a lot of opportunity to do a lot of the things that we want to do and have confidence that it's going to be done right.”
Stevenson will use two local businesses during the project, but the other bidder did not mention the use of any local business and it was going to use an Alberta refrigeration company.
Stevenson will complete the project in 90 days, but the lower bidder indicated a completion period of 115 days. The City considered this to be a significant factor, because ice will not be available to user groups for almost another month and the City will lose revenue if the project takes longer to complete.
Stevenson will provide a two-year warranty on the floor and dasher board system, but the other bidder indicated there will be a one-year warranty on the floor and a twoyear warranty on the dasher board.
City administration felt the track record and experience of Stevenson will be an advantage. Stevenson completed 21 arena surfaces in Saskatchewan during the past 10 years. The project team will include other experienced subcontractors. Brysand Arena Floor Specialists have completed over 200 arena concrete floors, including
24 in Saskatchewan. Omni Sport Inc. have installed 20 dasher board systems in Saskatchewan, including recent installations in Cabri and Shaunavon.
The existing ice surface of the Fairview East Arena is a sand floor with a refrigerated piping system. This limits the use of the facility to winter operation only. The upgrading project will provide the arena with a new refrigerated concrete floor with under slab heat piping, which will include a state-of-the-art poly fusion embedded piping system for improved energy efficiency. Other upgrades to the arena will include a new header system for refrigeration, and new board and glass.
The project will start shortly to ensure that the upgraded arena will be available for the upcoming hockey season as soon as possible.
“That's why, with some good help from administration and a few others, we were able to get the tender package out quickly after the MEEP funding and after council approved the two projects to the MEEP funding,” Jones said. “Part of the City's responsibility is to clean out the boards, the glass and any structures and open up the back door area. So we've already started with that and now with the council decision to select a provider of our tender, we might even see them on site as early as this week.”
The new concrete pad in the Fairview East Arena will be a benefit to different user groups, because the arena will in future also be available for various sport activities and events during the entire year.
“One of the fastest growing sports in Swift Current is lacrosse,” he said. “Now we don't have enough pads for them to be able to use. So once we get that poured, they'll be using that as one of their pads, but it also opens up opportunities for other things like receptions or family reunions or even ball hockey.”