A team of specialists will be arriving at Williams Lake to conduct facility assessments on seven city-owned buildings.
Director of municipal services, Gary Muraca says the facilities include City Hall, the Cariboo Arts Centre, Scout Island Nature Centre, public works building, and airport buildings.
The assessments will be structural, electrical, mechanical, building envelope, energy efficiency, and accessibility.
“The report that they’ll produce will prioritize our repairs so staff and council can better budget our capital plan up to the next 10 years,” he said.
“They’ll rank each factor by imminent meaning imminent repairs, can be put off or should be done in the next five years, and they’ll create a hierarchy for us in an Excel spreadsheet. So therefore when we’re preparing our budgets and it’s something that requires immediate attention, we’ll include that in next year’s capital plan.”
Council agreed at its last regular meeting to approve the award of contract to Morrison Hershfield to conduct the facility assessments for a request for proposal cost of $37,000.
Muraca says because they budgeted up to $60,000 and UBCM awarded them a grant of $48,000, they will be considering having more facilities assessed.
“They’ll be producing a report to Council in November,” Muraca said.
“I think we were doing a really good job on our roads and our underground infrastructure, but our buildings are getting up there in age. I think the airport was built in 1960 and we’ve never had an assessment done by qualified professionals-we just did the best we could, and a lot of times you miss out on opportunities as you start getting later and later, and you want to get more responsible for your money.”
“You got to really know what should take priority. I think it’s the responsible thing, and Council agrees, and I think we’ll be farther ahead in the long run by having this done.”