The dream of having a new community pool in Pembroke is dwindling, but not completely out of the question just yet. City council was given an update from the recreation department regarding the topic. The cost of a new facility is pegged to be upwards of $42 million and council was given three options to consider. Proceed with a design-build, go ahead with $400,000 worth of design drawings or continue to operate the current pool with a hefty investment need to operate. After reading the reports, Councilor Ian Kuehl was pretty straightforward with his response.
Councilor Troy Purcell says it could be a big-ticket item for a small group.
Council Ed Jacyno brought up the idea of losing the pool for a year in order to allocate funding towards a blueprint for a new facility that could help target government grants.
In the end, council did not make any recommendations to the rec department. While the City had received many letters of support from neighboring municipalities for the purpose of the Green & Inclusive Building grant, we have yet to receive any confirmation of partners. The project has faced numerous challenges to date. The largest challenge is the lack of funding. A design-build project doesn’t put the Corporation in a competitive position to be shovel-ready and successful in competitive grants. Feedback received from the GICB Program team indicated that shovel-ready projects were the successful proponents in the application selection. In addition, a design-build approach short-changes the project from attracting new partnerships as it is difficult to buy in without a design in place. Finally, the cost per square foot has increased by one and a half times (i.e., $1 million is now $1.5 million) which has now appeared to have anchored construction costs.
The Green and Inclusive Community Building program (GICB) grant would have supported new builds of 60% of the cost for the first $9,999,999.00 and 50% of the costs on new builds exceeding $10,000,000.00. Most recently, the City engaged with Marshall and Murray in the month of June as a third party for a cost estimate for the new build. Their estimate was slated at $42.2M for the project, which would include a new pool, therapeutic pool, and recreational activity space.
(Written by: Kyle Robinson)
