1947 replies to this topic

[aastra]

I meant:

 

Long = 50m

Short = 25m

 

"Long and short of it"

[aastra]

A clever play on words. The sort of thing that should motivate a cultured and sophisticated forumer to click the "Like" button like crazy.

[lanforod]

A clever play on words. The sort of thing that should motivate a cultured and sophisticated forumer to click the "Like" button like crazy.

 

Those have all died off.

[aastra]

 

Those have all died off.

 

This board has turned into a never-ending eulogy for Holden West.

[VicHockeyFan]

This board has turned into a never-ending eulogy for Holden West.

 

I was in Montreal 2 weeks ago, and I'm fairly certain I saw Holden West in a smoked meat deli there.

[Nparker]

I was in Montreal 2 weeks ago, and I'm fairly certain I saw Holden West in a smoked meat deli there.

As a patron or as a product? 

[Bingo]

This board has turned into a never-ending eulogy for Holden West.

 

I never got to play bridge with him. 

[spanky123]

Interesting ammendment to the pool RFP today.

 

The opening date has been advanced forward a year to fall 2020 or just 2 years from now!

 

Q. Please confirm that the successful Project Manager/Owner’s Representative will be ineligible to submit for Construction Management services.

A. Firms may submit proposals to any RFP that the City issues. Firms that submit proposals for this RFP are not precluded from submitting proposals for any other competition related to this project. At this time, there are three consulting services being contemplated for this project: - Project Manager - Design Consultant - Construction Manager The City intends to award these three consulting services RFP’s to three individual firms

 

The City seems to be saying that whomever they choose as the Owner's Representative can also bid on the construction services which seems to me to be a conflict on interest. The subsequent wording is strange though.

[Bingo]

I wonder if this means that Helps is no longer interested in a referendum.

 

A referendum would probably be defeated if it was held on it's own as they would probably not get the required number of votes.

When the bridge referendum was held in 2010 they combined it with a councillor by-election which generated more interest.

[Nparker]

Helps is gambling on Federal money being handed out for this. She better have a referendum ready to go.

[moretrain]

 

Victoria requests designs for new $69.4-million Crystal Pool

 

BILL CLEVERLEY / TIMES COLONIST

OCTOBER 10, 2017 06:00 AM

 

Victoria has issued a request for proposals for an architect to design the new Crystal Pool, even though sources of funding for the $69.4-million project remain unclear.

“The best way to get funding is to actually have a project to fund, whether we need to go to the public through [a] referendum or to the federal and provincial governments,” said Mayor Lisa Helps.

“Both [levels of government] are looking for projects that they could fund and then see a start right away.”

The city has $10 million in reserves to put toward the project, but the balance, minus outside grants, would have to be borrowed, triggering a referendum.

Helps added that the federal government “has announced all this infrastructure funding but [has] very little to show for it.”

Thomas Soulliere, director of parks, recreation and facilities, agreed it’s helpful to have a project that is “shovel-ready” when funding programs are announced.

“If we don’t get all the funding required through grant programs, then we’ll be using all of this material that we’re developing as part of the referendum process to make sure that residents and citizens understand what, essentially, they would be authorizing the city to build,” Soulliere said.

The request for proposals says the new facility will contain a 50-metre pool and a leisure/therapy pool and “will be accessible for patrons of all ages and abilities.”

The architect would be responsible for designing an environmentally friendly facility with a capacity to serve 35 per cent more patrons than use the existing pool, working with Turnbull Construction Project Managers, which has been selected as the city’s representative on the project.

The facility would use green technologies that make the building more energy-efficient and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Construction is scheduled to start in the fall of 2018, with completion in 2021.

Soulliere said 35 per cent more capacity doesn’t mean a building footprint that is 35 per cent larger.

“Essentially, what it means is having higher-quality spaces that can accommodate more uses and higher volumes of users throughout the operating hours,” he said.

The initial plan was to hold the project-funding referendum last month. That changed in June, when senior staff suggested the amount to be borrowed could be significantly reduced or even eliminated if the city taps into senior government grant programs.

Helps believes enough senior-government funding could be found to eliminate the need for borrowing.

“This is a perfect project for the province to fund and if the province says yes, the federal government will say yes because they take their direction from the province,” said Helps, who called the pool facility a “model project.”

“It’s a regional facility. It’s going to be all ages and abilities. It will increase the health and wellness of people across the region. It will increase sustainability and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Helps said the federal government is negotiating bilateral funding agreements with provinces, with an eye to having those deals in place before Christmas.

Councillors decided in February to replace the 45-year-old Crystal Pool, rejecting the idea of retrofitting or expanding the existing facility at an estimated cost of $40.9 million to $57.1 million.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

 

 

© Copyright Times Colonist

 

http://www.timescolo...pool-1.23059793

[spanky123]

Another politician trying to establish a legacy before their career comes to an end.

[tedward]

^ Are you suggesting we don't need to replace Crystal Pool?!?

[spanky123]

^ Are you suggesting we don't need to replace Crystal Pool?!?

 

I am suggesting that, like the bridge, the costs of refurbishment have been vastly overstated in order to create an urgency for a replacement. As a simple example, Helps has stated that it costs $1.5M a year in maintenance to keep Crystal Pool operational. Even if you assumed that there were no maintenance costs for a new pool, the interest costs on the loan would exceed $1.5M!

Edited by spanky123, 10 October 2017 - 11:08 AM.

[Nparker]

Another politician trying to establish a legacy before their career comes to an end.

She's going to leave a legacy even without Crystal Pool. I am not sure why she might think this project would "untarnish" her reputation.

[spanky123]

She needs to prove that she can get something done. 

[Nparker]

She needs to prove that she can get something done. 

She might want to think smaller scale.

[tedward]

I am suggesting that, like the bridge, the costs of refurbishment have been vastly overstated in order to create an urgency for a replacement. As a simple example, Helps has stated that it costs $1.5M a year in maintenance to keep Crystal Pool operational. Even if you assumed that there were no maintenance costs for a new pool, the interest costs on the loan would exceed $1.5M!

 

So... we do need to replace the Crystal Pool?!?

 

I don't understand you "urgency" point. Either the facility needs to be replaced or it doesn't, and since it is only going to get more expensive to do it, why shouldn't we get started?

[Mike K.]

I think spanky is trying to say that the immediacy of the replacement is one thing, but the cost to refurbish what already exists is quite possibly being promoted as the worst of all evils (evils being expending money on such a facility).

 

The whole situation just sounds too darned similar to the bridge fiasco, how we were told refurbishment was out of the question due to a b and c, but now we're stuck with a significantly delayed bridge and costs nearly double what we had originally anticipated to pay. And the final price could still rise by many millions of dollars once fendering is worked into the equation and once the fitting process begins.

[VicHockeyFan]

Someone online notes the Gordon Head Rec pool was built in 1969 or so, has been improved many times, and has a life expectancy of many more decades.

What’s our excuse?