Township worried over AHIC delays

by Keely Grasser

Nov 21, 2007

EMSDALE – Delays in the construction of the new Almaguin Highlands Information Centre (AHIC) are forcing Perry Township to ponder temporary arrangements for their office, says its mayor, Bill Core.

Currently, Perry Township’s office is housed in a trailer in Emsdale.

“The building we’re in now is in bad need of repair,” Core said.

But now the mayor is worrying that it will be even longer before the township is able to relocate their services to the new building.

A deal between Perry Township and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) will see the swap of the current township-owned AHIC building on northbound Hwy. 11 between Emsdale and Novar switched for a new building on southbound Hwy. 11, at Fern Glen Road. The new building will host both a tourism information centre and the township’s offices.

He said there’s been a snag in the MTO’s consultant tendering process.
“What the MTO has said is when they hired consultants, there was a mistake in the consulting price,” Core explained, adding that it caused a back-out from the deal.

MTO spokesperson Gordan Rennie confirms that there was an error with the consultant proposals.

The MTO, he said, became aware of the problem after tenders closed on Aug. 24.

“To ensure the public receives value for money and timely delivery of the project, we decided to re-tender the consultant assignment,” Rennie explained.

As for specifics about the error, he said that since the tender was not awarded, the specific details of the consultant proposals are considered confidential.

Rennie said the error occurred during the acquisition phase — the initial phase of planning and design involves the hiring of an engineering consultant.

The MTO uses a competitive bidding process to obtain the services of qualified firms for the planning, engineering and public consultation for the project, Rennie explained. The chosen consultant will be responsible for designing the site and the AHIC building.

The MTO re-tender went out in September, Rennie said, and will close in late December. They expect to have a consultant in place by late January 2008.

The re-tendering has Core expressing concerns that the next stage in the planning for the new AHIC building won’t get underway until sometime in 2008.

“The Fern Glen site looks like it’s (not going to be finished) until 2010,” he said. “It’s just a big delay.”

The township, he said, is currently discussing options for housing their offices in the meantime.

As for repairing the current offices, it makes little sense to put money into the current office, which the township will eventually move out of, Core said.

“We could move the town office to the (current) AHIC building if that was the best choice of cost,” Core said, adding that he doesn’t “like putting money into a building they are likely to tear down.”

Now the township is stuck making choices they’d rather not, he said.

Core couldn’t give an estimated cost for repairs to the current office.

However, Rennie said that, even with the re-tendering process, the MTO expects the new AHIC building will still be completed by a late-2009 deadline.

It will take up to one year to complete the detail design and up to one year to build the new site and building, Rennie said. “The construction completion timeline of late 2009 can still be maintained, providing necessary approvals are obtained on time.”

The swap deal has been in the works for several years.

Previous timelines had earlier construction completion dates. Core said that, according to those preliminary targets, “we should be in there by now.”

He also mentioned that the township had some issues with access to the Fern Glen site, specifically regarding trucks entering the new AHIC during slippery weather in winter.

However, Core said the township worked the issues out with the MTO during a meeting.

Rennie added that in addition to getting feedback from council on the project, the planning and design phase will include public consultations on the site design, landscaping and building features.

Local residents will be advised, he said, once public consultations have been scheduled.