At a regular Council meeting on Monday, Jan. 8, Kimberley City Council voted for staff to apply for two separate grant applications for funding support to have both the Marysville Arena and Kimberley Civic Centre assessed. The assessment will enable City Staff to create a prioritized list of investments to allow informed decision making with regards to future planning.
The City will apply for the 2018 Infrastructure Planning Grant provided by the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and the Municipal Asset Management Program provided by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
The assessment is expected to cost between $40,000 and $50,000. The Infrastructure Planning Grant provides up to $10,000 for projects that improve health and safety, while the FCM Assessment Management Program funds up to $50,000 at 80 per cent of project costs to support informed infrastructure investment decisions.
City CAO, Scott Sommerville says that with this funding, the City would be able to prioritize what they should be tacking first in both arenas, as opposed to relying on an educated guess from managers who no longer work for the City.
“I think it would be a good way to set up staff with a plan to work from for the next five to ten years,” explained Sommerville.
A report to Council from Economic Development Officer Kevin Wilson says that the purpose of the Arenas Condition Assessment is to engage qualified professionals to review the condition of both arenas.
“$1.2 million is in the 2018 Capital Plan for replacement of the Civic Centre Arena boards, concrete arena slab and brine lines,” said the report. “The brine lines run under the concrete slab circulating hazardous liquid at below zero temperatures to create ice; however, little is known about the condition of the brine lines, the likelihood of their failing, or the urgency of the investment.”
Furthermore, $1.2 million is in the 2020 Capital Plan for replacement of the boards, slab and brine lines for the Marysville Arena and $600,000 is in the 2022 budget to replace the building fame and siding on the Marysville Arena.
Councillor Darryl Oakley asked if there would be room in the grant budget for other planning initiatives, such as architectural or multi-use options, to which Sommerville replied saying that the grant funding would specifically be for bare bones infrastructure.
“Typically there’s architectural in the engineering background but for $50,000, if we’re lucky enough to get both grants, that’s not going to buy a creative re-purposing type of consulting,” said Sommerville. “This is really bare bones infrastructure. It’s all about the building and what needs to be done to keep it usable. That’s boards, slab, brine lines, the ice plant in Marysville and what order we should tackle them in.”