A new maintenance contract for the arena and curling rink has been approved.
At council’s meeting on June 25 (Coun. Darren Pearson was absent) a three-year deal was awarded to Nordic Solutions — the same contractor who took over maintenance of Bashaw’s community centre last year.
The approval followed a presentation by Nordic representatives Mike Frost and Martien McGillvray at the meeting.
The guaranteed professional maintenance program comes in just shy of $25,900 annually and includes all servicing, start-up, repairs, testing, emergency call-outs, parts and some reports.
That compares to the town’s current maintenance budget of $26,000, which CAO Theresa Fuller explained doesn’t include several other costs like major repairs and replacements.
“The budget is basically reactive and quite often when things happen, those costs are over and above that,” Fuller said.
Those additional costs, including staffing and contracted servicing, saw more than $25,000 in additional costs in 2019.
Frost outlined Nordic analyzed 48 different pieces — from furnaces to hot water tanks and heaters — to see what is there and to ascertain what may need to be done.
“The proposal eliminates all of that from council’s plate while providing a stable and fixed operating budget,” Frost said.
“It’s a comprehensive package instead of having to look forward to annual repairs. It is just shifting some the money while also reducing the costs by having the time to keep this equipment going longer as well as replacing components over time.”
He added the cost includes an initial $5,000 in repairs that may be needed before they are covered under the new deal.
“There are some antique-ish pieces, some with issues. Our contracted price may be high, but council won’t have to budget so much for extra repairs and we know exactly what it will take to look after things, so there won’t be any surprises,” he said, noting the annual cost will drop by that much in future years.
“And, we look at this as a long-term partnership. We’ll work with staff to make a list of what needs repairs and if there is a replacement or major work, we can help prioritize what needs done. Also, you will know years in advance of other major work and you will save on that as well with getting the pieces at cost and us covering some of the labour.
“For example, if a motor on the ice plant chiller burns out, it’s up to us to replace. That’s not cheap (about $4,700 not including labour). And, we would ensure the water is treated so the boilers and hot water tanks continue to work well.”
McGillvray added the proposal also takes a lot of items off the plate of public works foreman Murray Holroyd and the other town staff.
“Murray and his crew do a good job and try to keep up, but they are not dedicated HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) technicians and that’s really where Nordic comes in,” she said.
“And being proactive is less expensive in the long run.”
In addition, servicing would be coordinated in order to complete work at both buildings on the same day.
The potential of the ice plant being outdated was also answered by Frost.
“As long as it is looked after properly, there is no urgency to update it. The R22 freon that is no longer being made is still available and we reclaim as much as we can. It is tracked and can only be purchased through contractors like us, but there is still lots out there,” he said.
Frost added there is no deadline to change over, but they have kits they can install if it becomes necessary.
Leary on lights
On the other hand, council was less radiant about Nordic’s proposed light replacement for the three facilities.
Instead of moving forward with the project, council opted to gather more information and apply for an available grant prior to making a final decision.
The proposal showed possible savings of more than $7,000 annually on current electricity costs at the arena and significantly lower usage at the community hall through lower watt LED lights being installed.
The project would initially cost more than $65,000 — $37,500 for the arena complex and $28,280 for community hall. However, a grant is available for the arena that could net a rebate of over $28,000, meaning the potential payback on the arena would be about 15 months.
At the arena, the upgrade would see shatter-proof strip lights and pot lights in common areas and hallways, water-proof lighting with sensors in washrooms and change rooms, light panels in the seating and cafeteria areas plus new lights over the ice surfaces and lower-watt outdoor lights.
For the community hall, all of the current panels would be changed to LED panels with 40-watt outdoor LED lights on the building and LED bulbs installed in the awning fixtures. All of the upgrades would be warrantied for five years.
“The arena ice surface does have LED bulbs, but the present hood configuration doesn’t allow the light to be thrown as it is supposed to. The proposed change would be far more efficient and produce way better light without throwing shadows as it does now,” explained McGillvray.
Coun. Rob McDonald questioned the possible savings, especially when some promises of great savings a decade ago for the community hall upgrade proved over-reaching.
“What if we don’t see those kind of savings? We were promised huge savings in the past, and the math was there, but the reduction wasn’t. It ended up costing us twice as much to operate?” McDonald said.
“It really sounds too good to be true.”
McGillvray stated she trusts the math for the arena and curling rink, but admits the figures for the community hall are not really believable.
“That said, we can affect the usage and, for example going from 250 watts to 40 watts on fixtures, there will be savings,” she said.
During discussions on the proposal later in the meeting, McDonald felt more research into the accuracy of the savings was needed.
“Those numbers just seem a little too fantastic. I’m really hesitant to jump on these numbers,” he said.
Fuller stated the electric bill for the community hall is substantial, so McDonald asked how much the lights cost and whether the bulk of the bill is for the HVAC units constantly running.
When Fuller said that breakdown isn’t available, McDonald felt that would be worth looking into, going so far as to suggest finding a third party to verify the usage and savings estimates.
The rest of council agreed and directed administration to obtain more information and attempt to verify the estimates through a third party.
That wasn’t it though, as Holroyd pointed out another issue with the estimated savings — that the bills from the curling club weren’t included in the calculations, as they have a separate meter.
At that point, council requested administration contact the club to gauge their interest in the proposal and adding their usage to see if that makes a difference to the proposal.
No timeline was provided for the issue to come back to council.