Mayor expects Park’s fate to come up at meeting

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This article was published 15/03/2023 (964 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Park Community Centre ordeal is likely to come up today during a meeting between City of Brandon administration and the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba, Mayor Jeff Fawcett says.

Fawcett acknowledged it’s likely the Park controversy — which involved a failed request for proposals that resulted in council rejecting all three bids that were submitted — will come up.

“I think that we will [discuss the Park centre] because we’ll just want to make sure that there’s clarity on the one-off nature that that was versus our regular process through procurement,” Fawcett told the Sun on Tuesday afternoon.

Fawcett said that while he will attend the meeting, which will be held at city hall this morning, it’s not political. City administration and association officials will discuss the city’s request for proposals process and other subjects, he said.

While expected to be general in nature, Fawcett acknowledged the meeting was sparked, in part, by the Park controversy and its initial “non-traditional” RFP process and will likely include an explanation to CARM regarding what happened.

While the fate of Park Community Centre on the 1400 block of Louise Avenue has been a three- to four-year ordeal, the issue reached a head on Feb. 6 when council deferred a decision whether to follow a city administration recommendation to reject all three bids submitted for the demolition of the current building and construction of a new one.

The initial RFP was issued for a building with a capacity of 140, comparable to the original capacity of the existing building. However, it was later learned that building standards had changed and the new building would need to be bigger, and therefore more expensive.

The city had set aside $1.2 million, but the lowest bid came in at $1.5 million. There was money in the park reserve, administration stated, but using it would delay a number of green space projects, hence the recommendation the city reject the bids.

However, area residents concluded that a vote to reject the bids meant the beloved community centre — which they described as crucial to the life and culture of their downtown neighbourhood — would face the wrecking ball without a replacement.

On March 6, council rejected all three bids, but not before promising not to demolish the community hall before the proposed replacement is redesigned, likely smaller and perhaps with dual use as a daycare centre, and another RFP sent to council for review before being issued.

At that latest council meeting, city administration warned that, despite its recommendation to reject the bids, doing so and issuing a new tender might put the city at legal risk from the bidders on the original tender.

Administration also warned council that it will face a credibility issue with contractors when it issues future RFPs. Those who submitted bids had spent considerable time and money only to have none of their offers accepted.

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