GORE BAY—The Town of Gore Bay will be looking at other options for the construction of the new Gore Bay Fitness Centre, after tenders for constructing the building had come in substantially more than had been anticipated and budgeted for.
At a Town of Gore Bay governance committee meeting last week, tenders for construction of the building were opened.
Stasia Carr, assistant clerk for Gore Bay told the committee the town had received two bids for the construction contract, one for $693,000 and the other for $917,000. It was pointed out the town had set a budget of $650,000 for the construction.
“Both of these bids are well over what we budgeted,” said Gore Bay Mayor Dan Osborne. “The budget had been set at $650,000; we don’t have the money in our budget to put into that.”
Mayor Osborne told the committee he has discussed the issue with the funder of the building construction. “We will have a better idea of the direction we are taking after another upcoming meeting.” He said his recommendation is that neither bid be accepted, pointing out he had expected the bids to be between approximately $400,000-500,000.”
Committee member Jack Clark said one option that could be considered is, “to go back to J.L. Richards to look at downscaling the building itself.”
Town council had previously approved the drawings provided by J.L. Richards for the new fitness centre that is to be located on Agnes Street (the town’s former public works building) in Gore Bay.
Council was told the plans for the fitness centre call for a larger building than had originally been presented. The building will be 65 foot-long and 36 feet wide. The actual gym/fitness area is 40×36 foot (approximately 1,440 square foot in size). It will include change rooms and bathrooms including one universal bathroom.
