Cost overruns at the Greater Vernon Athletics Park could cast a shadow over future public projects.
The Regional District of North Okanagan has revealed that the final price tag for the running track and sports fields is $8.5 million, well above the $7.5 million originally borrowed after a referendum.
Juliette Cunningham, Greater Vernon Advisory Committee chairperson, admits the situation with the athletics park may lead some residents to question finances for future amenities like twinning Kal Tire Place.
“We hope to learn from that when we move ahead with other projects,” she said.
“Perhaps there is a process to do more quantitative investigation of projects”
Director Bob Spiers is calling for more transparency when financial figures are provided to taxpayers for constructing facilities.
“We need to tell people that if there are overruns, how they will be addressed instead of saying there will be no overages,” he said, adding that there was a public assumption that the $7.5 million would cost everything.
Director Catherine Lord insists the project wasn’t misrepresented to residents.
“The (referendum) question was on borrowing and not the cost of the project,” she said.
While $7.5 million was borrowed for the track, the budget was hiked to $8.6 million in 2015 to reflect an increase in project scope and some higher than expected costs. Seventy percent of the additional budget was drawn from reserves, with the remainder secured through grants and general revenue.
“One of the issues we encountered was at the time of the initial site excavation,” said Stephen Banmen, RDNO’s general manager of finance.
“There were areas of clay soils found that hadn’t been identified in the geotechnical analysis, resulting in a greater volume of excavation and ultimately higher costs.”
The other factor driving impacting the price tag was an upswing in construction costs due to Okanagan market conditions.
Also included in the amended budget was $340,000 to include showers.
Showers were initially cut from the project to save money, but added at the last minute.
“The user groups said that wasn’t practical,” said Cunningham.
A $50,000 provincial grant was directed towards the showers.
Director Bob Fleming isn’t concerned with the final $8.5 million cost for the track.
“It’s good value for what`s up there and it is being well used,” he said.
Organized sports are using the facility as are local residents.
“Lots of walkers and runners are taking advantage of the low impact surface and beautiful location,” said Cunningham.