The City of Kimberley hosted a six-hour open house to provide all the available information on the Flume Rehab and SunMine projects yesterday.
People came in and out, speaking to City staff and Council members about the projects.
The SunMine information was essentially that which was released earlier this month when the ground breaking on the solar project was celebrated.
Sun Mine has a $5.3 million construction budget, which includes $4.05 million for the Engineer Procure Construct project, $1.1 million for ancillary project costs and $219,000 for performance, labour and material bonding and contingency.
After loan payments, operations and maintenance expenses, net revenue is expected to average $57,800 per year over 25 years. The City’s loan will be paid off in 20 years.
As for the Flume Rehab, City Chief Financial Officer Holly Ronnquist prepared an eight-page information package, which she says breaks things down as simply as possible.
The package included actual projects costs to July 7, 2014; revised project cost and funding at December 31, 2013; a budget variance analysis to July 7; a yearly cost to taxpayer (original vs current projections) and grant funding activity for the project.
The actual project cost to date is $3,449,500. That includes design at $323,533; construction at $2,149,207 and land at $976,761. Of that $2,737,446 was spent on Phase 1 and $712,054 on Phase II.
$3,204,500 of the total was funded through borrowing.
Ronnquist also provided a revised project cost and funding summary which shows the final cost of the project sitting at $6.82 million on Dec. 31, 2013, with the City funding $4,755,913 and $2,068,582 from the provincial/federal grants. That budget has been revised slightly to $6,721,247.
The original budget approved by Council was $4,495,000, which means the project’s variance from the original budget is $2,226,247.
Where the variances occurred has been broken down as well.
For instance, $433,528 more than budget was spent on land, legal costs and taxes, hazardous assessment/demolition costs and moving and other costs.
Rock was budgeted at $559,364, but by project completion, $1,238,771 will have been spent, a variance of $679,407.
Professional services are projected to cost $37,152 more than budget. And construction itself will cost $3,066,565 with $1,220,605 spent to date and $1,845,960 project. That is $1,601,016 over the original budget.
And the project has been enhanced to extend from the end of the old concrete flume to the orange bridge which adds $625,231.
Altogether that is a budget variance of $2,226,247.
Which brings us to the cost to the taxpayer. In March 2012, when there was hope for a two thirds grant and a total project cost of $4,250,000, the cost to an average single family home was $18 per year. The second scenario which showed the city borrowing $4,250,000 million showed a cost per home of $54.
With the project now at $6,721,247, the average single family home will pay $56 per year.
The entire report and SunMine information are all available at City Hall and at kimberley.ca.