Bowen Island Municipality has hired Liberty Contract Management (LCM) for design-build services for the new Fire Hall and Emergency Operations Centre, slated to be built on Lot 3 of the Community Lands, off Miller Road.
Negotiation of a fixed-price contract with LCM comes after BIM issued a Notice of Intent to Direct Award, a process by which a local government informs contractors that it intends to negotiate a contract directly with a specified contractor (direct award), and without a competitive process. No objections were received from prospective proponents.
This process was chosen because the competitive tendering process in September 2019 returned unfavourable responses that were significantly higher than the available project budget. In the months since, the project design and scope was reviewed to bring it closer in line with the available budget. LCM demonstrated that they could meet the project scope with a reasonable increase to the budget and within Bowen Island Municipality’s timeline.
A referendum in 2017 approved borrowing of up to $3,000,000 for the construction of the new main Fire Hall and Emergency Operations Centre on Lot 3 of the Community Lands - a cost estimated to increase taxes to the average property by $73 a year.
The revised total project cost for the Fire Hall and Emergency Operations Centre building is anticipated to be $3,725,000. The additional funding required to complete the project will be funded from two municipal reserve funds - the Fire Building Replacement Reserve Fund and the General Capital Renewal and Replacement Reserve Fund. Since the additional funds are coming from reserve funds, the increase will not increase property taxes from the average $73 a year.
Next steps in the project are to secure a building permit, which staff will prioritize, and to break ground on construction. The anticipated occupancy of the new Fire Hall is late 2021.
Read more about the Fire Hall and EOC project