Owen Sound Council has approved nine more tender packages for the Regional Recreation Centre at Victoria Park.
The tenders were for items like pool finishes and equipment, masonry and architectural precast, metal siding and aluminium panels, and more.
They were valued at a total of 6.6 million dollars — but they also came in at more than 280 thousand dollars under budget.
More than 31 million dollars worth of tenders has been awarded on the Rec Centre.
City Special Capital Projects Manager Brad McRoberts says that number is about 440 thousand under budget.
That’s welcome news for Councillors and Staff who have been working to reduce costs on the 38 million dollar project.
Councillor Jim McManaman — the Chair of the Steering Committee — notes there have been many challenges along the way and it’s nice to see things progressing.
The last round of tenders — worth an estimated four million dollars — will be awarded at the next council meeting in two weeks.
But McManaman says committing the money isn’t the same as spending it, and the City is still looking at a deadline of March 31st, 2011, to complete as much of the facility – and spend as much money – as possible.
And so contractors are being asked to spend as much of the budgeted amount as they are able once they have been awarded tenders.
McRoberts gave a project update to Council and says work is progressing according to schedule — meaning the facility is still targeted to be completed by the early spring of 2012.
He also addressed a question by Councillor Arlene Wright, who says she has been asked by a number of city residents why no work is taking place at the site on Friday afternoons, and sometimes on other days.
McRoberts says the workers have generally wrapped up their work weeks by Friday afternoon and have not been authorized to work overtime.
He also notes due to delivery schedules that bring materials to the site on certain days — workers may not necessarily have anything to do even if they wanted.
