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Protective Services Building receives cash injection from the County to complete construction

Council approves an additional $682,000 contribution to the Protective Services Buildings Capital budget to allow for ongoing construction to be completed in 2021
construction on fire services building ok ford
Work continues on the landscaping of the new Protective Services building in Lac La Biche. Inside renovations are now going ahead thanks to a funding infusion from found money inside the current year's budget.

LAC LA BICHE - To pay for the latest cost overruns at Lac La Biche County’s new Protective Services building, municipal leaders have been forced to find more than $680,000 — most coming from unspent funding from other departments and services. 

The funds, found primarily in areas where COVID-19 measures have reduced expenditures, will finance the remainder of interior renovations expected to be completed by November 1, of this year.  

The 29,000 square foot facility, which formerly operated as La Biche Ford, was purchased by the County in 2019 to create a centralized headquarters for local emergency response departments.  

Currently, the space is only being utilized as the Lac La Biche fire hall, however, municipally-funded Peace Officers will move into the facility once current renovations are complete, and negotiations are said to be ongoing with ambulance services. 

The recent decision for additional funding includes $360,000 for the completion of the building’s parking lot and the costs of Fire Services within the building. The remaining $322,000 is earmarked for construction in areas designated for municipally-funded Peace Officers, allowing them to move their operations into the new emergency response facility and join County fire crews. Currently, municipal peace officers continue to be housed in offices at the Bold Center. 

Much of the additional costs were said to be the result of the increased prices of materials — a economic side-effect of the COVID pandemic that has seen the price of lumber, plywood, drywall and even nails increase in price due to production reductions and demand increases. 

“Most of these costs have been driven up because of COVID. Cost of construction and materials and so forth have all increased,” says Darrell Lessmeister, the CAO of Recreation and Community Services with Lac La Biche County. 

The building and two-acre commercial lot was acquired by the County for $4.1 million. Council had initially set aside an additional $924,210 of 2021’s operating budget to fund the renovation project. 

Even with substantial project overruns, councillors and their administration is optimistic that the value of the building is greater than the capital spent. 

“This has still been a good purchase and I think it will be a great facility for the community. We've now got 29,000 square feet versus a facility we've been looking at prior to looking at this building 18,000 square feet for basically the same price,” Lessmeister said. 

In voting to approve the additional funding, councillors said the costs are worth it. 

“It's a facility that we can definitely be proud of... I look forward to moving forward with this,” said Coun. Charlyn. Moore. 

Budget miscalculations 

With approval for the additional $682,00, the Protectives Services building’s 2021 renovation project will receive nearly $1.5 million more of the Lac La Biche County’s budget for this year. That brings the total cost of the Protective Services Building and property close to $5.7 million.  

The largest overrun reported was transition from a gravel parking lot to a paved lot, costing $150,000 more than anticipated. Followed by construction of the building, which cost the County an additional $112,000 attributed to increased cost of materials and labour.  

According to a municipal report brought out with the request for additional funding, the initial renovation budget for the new building has so far underestimated costs associated with IT services, engineering, construction supplies and drainage among others items 

“The estimates were completed in 2019 and since that time construction cost with materials and supplies have doubled and, in some cases, tripled, COVID has been a big contributing factor with the rising costs of renovations,” states a portion of the report. 

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