Posted May 9, 2013, 10:07 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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Update on the new RCMP detachment:
Quote:
Slow process for new police station
TUESDAY, 07 MAY 2013 18:00 J.P. SQUIRE
Delivering a new home for Kelowna RCMP is a long, drawn-out birthing process.
The seed was planted more than nine months ago, double that in fact, and the gestation period could be another three to four years.
After years of complaints that RCMP members were tripping over each other (and municipal staff) at the crowded Doyle Avenue detachment, forensics, traffic and long-term storage were moved to another location in 2007 "as a short-term solution."
However, pleas by then-superintendent Bill McKinnon and a staffing study recently convinced city council to add another
22 members over four years.
The 40,000-square-foot existing detachment is now home to 260 staff, 160 of them RCMP members, minus those three operations working at a 5,000-square-foot off-site office.
The new detachment is expected to have about 86,000 square feet, about double the current space. In the long term, more than 300 RCMP members, municipal staff, auxiliaries, Crime Stoppers and volunteers will call it home.
"It is complex. We're working really closely with the RCMP; they have been really great to work with. We want a real Kelowna-based solution. We don't want to have to move the RCMP again. That's the problem with Doyle Avenue: there's no more space around for expansion. The feeling was find them a site where they can be forever," said project manager Kristine Bouw, the city's building and facility planner.
"We're quite good in the city at keeping our buildings working and operating. It depends on how we design it, but it will be their home for 50 years minimum."
Eighteen months ago, the city established a building committee composed of city and RCMP representatives. After concluding the Doyle Avenue site was not large enough for an expansion, the city bought 3.24 acres of undeveloped land on the north side of Clement Avenue between St. Paul and Richter streets.
The first step (called facility programming) involved examining current facilities, determining what the detachment will need in the future and documenting that on spreadsheets, said Bouw.
"I also look at the site because there are parking requirements and road dedication on Clement Avenue (a 10-metre strip to eventually widen it to four lanes)," she said.
The $46-million price tag in the city's current capital plan includes site and off-site improvements as well as construction, she noted.
The committee is now moving into the "indicative design where we'll actually test it. It has no form right now; essentially, it's just a spreadsheet with numbers."
So the city has issued a call for proposals for designers. Starting in June, the winning design team will look at the geo-technical issues of the site, for example, test some building options and prepare a preliminary cost estimate.
By September-October, the city would issue a request for qualifications from interested parties, basically the start of a tender call for designing and building it.
Contractors would then team up with architects in a design competition. A short list of three to five firms - all of them capable of designing and building the detachment - would submit their plans. The city would then decide which could do the best job and on budget.
The city also has to get voter approval late this year, another alternate approval process (AAP) in which those opposed would have to gather sufficient names on a petition.
"Design would likely start next spring or summer, depending on how that AAP goes," said Bouw.
"It would probably be a good year to complete the design because there is quite a bit of detail. And with the RCMP, there is a lot of technical and security specifications that have to be met."
With a design-build contract, the contractor could start work on a pre-load to compact the soil and pour the foundation while detailed technical drawings are finished, she said.
"It's a difficult time frame to set for completion, but it could be 2016-17. You want to make sure security on the building has been done properly."
Early in the process, the committee decided not to include the city's bylaw enforcement office and the emergency operations centre in the new detachment headquarters. Bylaw officers will have their office at the Library Parkade expansion on Ellis Street, close to City Hall and downtown.
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http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/lo...tion-5813.html
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