Keep separate change rooms at Wellness Centre, city staff suggest

City staff have turned to the architect responsible for the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre’s planned upgrades for new ideas after the project started showing signs of going over budget — and the plan scraps the idea of a single gender-neutral change area.

A memo went out Friday from Sheldon Laidman, commissioner of community services, outlining the options city councillors may consider when the issue comes before them Monday night. Council had asked for a more detailed costing of the project at its Thursday meeting.

Laidman wrote that the project is expected to cost $3,667,000 on a budget of $3.25 million, an overage of $417,000.

“Typically, where tenders exceed the approved budget, staff would look to value engineer the project to determine the most appropriate areas to reduce costs to meet the budget,” he wrote. “However, staff are

concerned that there is very little opportunity in the design to reduce costs.” Coun. Dean Pappas, the city’s finance chair, had intended to raise this issue at Monday’s council meeting.

Staff considered a council suggestion that the building’s HVAC upgrades and plans for its change rooms be separated, but that would be difficult, Laidman wrote, as the HVAC systems are in the walls of the change area, which also requires accessibility upgrades.

Another issue is a $1,054,000 grant from the province. Laidman wrote that reworking the plan could affect the city’s eligibility for that grant.

Laidman wrote that staff have come up with a plan that would keep the project under budget and still qualify for the grant.

“Staff have done a preliminary costing analysis of this alternative option and it is within the approved $3.25 million budget as there are significant savings in materials and reduced labour costs,” the memo reads. “The pursuit of this option, since it maintains the city’s opportunity for the provincial grant, would see a net cost to the city of $2,196,000.”

The new plan would see the HVAC system replaced, but the current change rooms kept as they are, with upgrades to floors and walls, the creation of an accessible shower/washroom and an expanded universal change room. “This would allow for mandated accessibility improvements to all change rooms, allow for improvements to the customer experience through an expanded universal change room with private change spaces and would meet future programming demands,” Laidman wrote.

This alternative design would meet the terms of the provincial grant, he wrote.

The meeting will be streamed online at peterborough.ca.