Residents raise red flags over delayed project
When three long-term Lions Bay residents raised a range of concerns at the February 18 Council meeting, each mentioned the cost overruns of the Lions Bay Beach Park project.
One speaker, Morgan Gatto, principal of Morgan & Gatto, Design & Building, has held a special interest in the project for several years. Gatto's company joined the application process asking for Request For Proposals (RFPs) with two other companies in early 2023, and was awarded the bid at the time. The convoluted path the project has followed meant that Gatto ultimately stepped away from the project, but as a resident, he has kept an eye on how things have unfolded.
When an open house event was announced for January 15, Gatto attended. After the meeting he said he'd noticed a number of red flags.
"Many concerns that I’ve had since the town hall meeting in January were confirmed," Gatto said in a statement to The Watershed.
These included "poor or lack of communication and transparency between the Financial Officer, the Chief Administrative Officer and Council, between Nick Bray Associates, the CAO and Council, and between the CAO and residents themselves."
He also noted the disconnect between the CAO's insistence that the final cost numbers were fixed, while subsequently calling for the acceptance of an $18,000 charge from the architect to relocate the washroom building onto Village property from where it had been sited on leased land.
Gatto also attended the workshop session members of Council held in Council Chambers with CAO Ross Blackwell, architect Nick Bray and a representative of EuroHouse builders on February 19. Gatto says this meeting did not lessen his concerns that the cost analysis and breakdowns presented to the public do not reflect realistic projections.
After the meeting, he took a closer look at the numbers presented by Financial Officer Joe Chirkoff.
"This started as an exercise for me to understand the difference in the numbers presented in the original grant application and those presented in Council and at January's open house," he said, adding he put together a chart comparing the costs of the project as initially budgeted on the grant application with the most recent figures as provided by the FO.
Gatto has given The Watershed permission to publish the information he's gathered, which has subsequently been assessed for accuracy by a local accountant. (Site members can access Gatto's chart HERE)
The Watershed has also contacted Chirkoff for comment.
Gatto's takeaways include:
Parts of the project (including the addition of accessible pathways and the reconstruction of the jetty) have been moved into the purview of a second grant offered by Translink, the awarding of which has not yet been confirmed.
The architect has suggested removing the kayak/watercraft storage portion from the scope of the project, something which requires the approval of the grantor, in this case, the provincial government.
Costs to Village taxpayers in the original grant budget of just over a million dollars were approximately $285,000 (supplementing the $850,000 grant). The current numbers show the cost of the project itself has increased by a third since the grant application was approved, while the project costs plus the additional listed costs of the kayak and pathways projects, brings the costs to taxpayers to more than $700,000, even with the not-yet-granted Translink money.
Blackwell has already said the project has missed deadlines to be completed before this summer. When asked about next steps, Blackwell said that Council has been working directly with the design team.
“Once the Architect has completed a finalized concept, based on Council’s input, together with an associated budget, it will come to a Council meeting for formal approval,” Blackwell said, adding that he doesn’t foresee any further need for a closed Council meeting in relation to the project.
Gatto says he is worried that if the current proponents are allowed to fulfill their contract, the Village will have paid a total of $241,000 in consulting and engineering fees to realize the project is not viable under the present budget.
"It's a lot of money for a playground and a toilet," he said.
The next Council meeting is a Committee of the Whole, scheduled for March 4 at 6 p.m.
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Thank you so much for staying on top of all of this and summarizing it in an easy to digest way. Annoying about the kayak and paddle board rack! From my days on the earlier beach park committee, I felt that was an improvement that gave the most and cost the least. Would also love to see the potable water refill station that we had in that original plan.