Two major projects - a new fire hall and a new swimming pool - were added to the five-year capital plan as approved by city council this week, but a few more hurdles need to be cleared before the ground breaks on either project.
It's expected the money for the projects will be borrowed for more than five years. It means the city will need the public's approval via either a referendum or a counterpetition.
And before they reach that stage, details on the terms of borrowing, as well as on the projects themselves, still need to be hammered out.
As it stands, council is looking at replacing Fire Hall No. 1 downtown with a facility carrying a $15-million price tag, next to the YMCA on Massey Boulevard and replacing the Four Seasons Pool at a cost of $33 million. Locations in or near the downtown are being considered but a specific site has not yet been proposed.
According to a report from financial services director Kris Dalio, the cost to the average homeowner for the new fire hall ranges from $49.99 to $54.53 to $61.51 per year depending on whether to take 30, 25 or 20 years to pay back the debt.
For the pool, the range is from $21.41 to $23.37 to $26.36 to $23.37.
Coun. Albert Koehler was the lone council member to vote against approving the capital plan. He did so after expressing doubt about the need for a new fire hall.
In a report, staff said a new hall is needed primarily because the existing one, located next to city hall, is in a poor location. Moving it south to Massey Boulevard represents a 48-per-cent improvement in response coverage over the current site, according to staff.
The current all also needs $1.29 million worth of work over 10 years to maintain. The amount does not in include "betterments such as post-disaster structural requirements for seismic events, fire wall separation between occupancies, accessibility improvements and other code upgrades."
However, that was not enough to convince Koehler.
"Leave the fire hall for a few years where it is and not deal with two items at the same time," he said during budget discussions Wednesday night. "Yes, the fire hall is 60 years old but that doesn't mean anything. It's a solid brick building, it will last another 60 years."
Coun. Frank Everett countered that the city could open itself to a lawsuit if firefighters fail to reach a call on time because of the hall's downtown location.
"Citizen safety is paramount in this," Everett said. "When you have a 60-year-old structure, that tells me that a lot of the equipment that's inside that structure is antiquated because I know we haven't put all the dollars and cents into that equipment."
Under the capital plan, the goal is to have both projects completed by 2020.
