By Kevin J Sabo For the Advance
The latest Town of Castor meeting became heated when the discussion came to the ongoing arena renovation.
Concerns were raised when Mayor Richard Elhard brought forward a funding request regarding the stainless-steel kitchen amenities that are required to complete the project. At issue is the fact that the amenities did not seem to be accounted for in the winning tender.
This oversight is coming on the heels of another in recent weeks; the winning bid didn’t cover the cost of paint for the new renovations.
The project has $80,000 set aside in the budget as a contingency fund, which has been used several times already to pay for items not accounted for in the tender. Other non-accounted items in the winning bid are in-floor heating at a cost of $6,000, the cost of a building permit at $3,744, misc electrical work at $7,905, bobcat services at $1000, misc. at $1465, the paint which has yet to be billed, but estimated at $5,000 to $6,000, and finally the stainless steel work for the kitchen at $6500, totalling more than $26,000 before the paint is added.
“There seems to be a lot of money coming out of contingency for things that should have been in the bidding process,” said Coun. Travis Ryan.
Coun. Ryan was not alone in his thought.
Coun. Lonny Nelner said, “There’s been a lot of errors made on that thing. I’ll have to agree on that.”
After some debate, council voted unanimously in favour of authorizing the cost of the stainless-steel equipment seeing a kitchen is required for the building, and a significant amount of money has already been put into the project.
Recreation Director Natasha Bozek and Mayor Elhard have both said that with savings found in other areas of the project the arena renovation is still likely to come in under budget. The tentative opening date for the Beaverdome is Dec. 1.