The North Cariboo Joint Advisory Committee will be asking the Cariboo Regional District Board for some emergency funding to pay for two new furnaces at the Barlow Creek Hall.
Jeff Norburn, the Director of Community Services with the City of Quesnel, says they failed at the same time last month, leaving the facility without heat.
“Staff determined that they were beyond repair and needed to be replaced.  In accordance with North Cariboo Recreation and Parks policy, the Director of Community Services authorized replacement of the two furnaces as an emergency expenditure.  The cost to replace the two furnaces was just shy of 10 thousand dollars.”
Norburn noted that the units were eligible for a Fortis rebate grant worth 4 thousand dollars.
The Committee was given a couple of options to pay for the project, including deferring one of two capital projects planned for Barlow Creek in 2020-21.
“One of them is air conditioning for the Barlow Creek Hall for 75-hundred dollars and the other is upgrades to the main ball field at Ranger Park.  The installation of the air conditioning is planned to help address issues of condensation in the building as well as to make the building more comfortable for users in the summer, although it’s driven largely by the condensation issue.  The ball field upgrades include a long overdue replacement of the backstop for the main ball field, and installation of netting for the outfield.”
Norburn said that the backstop was old and in disrepair, and that a meeting had been requested by the slo-pitch group for safety reasons, and to help address concerns that the ball field is undersized.
The other option, which the committee unanimously approved, was for the Boar to ask the CRD Board to use gas tax money to pay for the difference in the budget.