3743 Community Events Expansion project deferred while Town explores additional funding Town Council made the difficult decision at their Sept. 13 Council Meeting to defer the expansion of the Dale Fisher Arena after receiving the final costing to complete the project. In June, the Town awarded the contract for Construction Management Services to Bird Construction Group Ltd. to work with TBD Architecture & Urban Planning and provide cost certainty for the expansion. Final pricing was presented to Council with the total construction cost for the facility coming in at $29.95M, unfortunately not a feasible number for the Town to work with at this time. Several factors contributed to the final cost of the recreation facility expansion including inflated costs for construction materials, the changing scope of the project and being able to maintain public access throughout construction. Now that cost certainty for the expansion has been obtained, Town Administration has been directed to explore additional funding opportunities to determine if the project can go ahead as planned. "This is disappointing news for us all as we believe that this facility will be a major economic driver for the future of our community,” said Ray Ralph, Mayor for the Town of Devon. “At the end of the day, we have to do what we believe is best for our residents and with the current level of funding towards the project and our current borrowing capacity, we simply can’t take this project on until additional funding can be obtained and commodity prices for construction materials are less inflated.” All expenses incurred thus far by the Town on the expansion project including the Climate Change Resilience Assessment, GHG Mitigation Assessment, Design and Engineering Services and Construction Management Services are all eligible for funding under the grant program. This project will be one of the first items that Council is briefed on after the municipal election on Oct. 18 and additional updates will continue to be shared with the community. -30- For more information contact: Justin Janke Communications Coordinator Town of Devon P: 780-987-8302 E: JJanke@devon.ca Paresh Dhariya General Manager of Planning & Operations Town of Devon P: 780-987-8329 E: PDhariya@devon.ca Share Print