Stephen Vance, Staff
As part of its ongoing development of its asset management plan, the Municipality of Meaford will undertake an assessment of the condition of 20 municipal facilities, after council gave final approval to the project and its funding on March 7.
“Within the requirements of the Asset Management Plan, much work is needed to understand the condition of various building systems (structure, HVAC, electrical, roof, etc.) relating to all municipal facilities. The integrated facility condition assessment (IFCA) study will include a facility condition assessment (FCA), accessibility audit (AA), and energy audit (EA), so that capital investment decisions are based on return on investment that reduces operating and maintenance costs and provides for the efficient use of capital,” Meaford Treasurer and Director of Infrastructure Management, Darcy Chapman, told council in a report presented to council at their February 29 meeting.
Chapman told council that as the asset management plan has developed, the municipality has accumulated much-needed information about the state of infrastructure like roads and bridges, its water treatment system, and other municipal assets like its fleet of vehicles and other equipment, however the final piece of the plan is to develop an understanding of the condition of municipally-owned facilities.
The Treasurer noted that the province requires all Ontario municipalities to complete their asset management plans by the end of this year.
The project was originally allocated $70,000 through the 2016 budget deliberations to be funded through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF). It was expected that this funding would allow 20 municipal facilities to be studied, however after seeking requests for proposals from companies to conduct the assessment, it was evident that some additional funding would be required, so Chapman asked council to approve the transfer of some of the funds that had previously been budgeted for the now defunct planned partnership with a local condo board for municipal use of an indoor swimming pool.
“Seventeen RFPs were received and opened by a tender opening committee on Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. Upon completion of submission reviews and scoring CCI Group Inc. from Concord, Ontario was determined to be the most responsive proposal to meet the needs of the Municipality,” said Chapman in his report.
The total cost will be $98,707.20, and council approved his request to reallocate $28,707.20 originally budgeted for the Brookside Pool initiative to allow for all 20 buildings to be studied.
The 20 facilities that will be studied are:
- Council Chambers
- Riverside Community Centre
- Woodford Community Centre
- Bognor Community Centre
- Meaford Museum
- Meaford & St. Vincent Community Centre – Meaford & St. Vincent Arena
- Sydenham Office
- Meaford Hall
- Meaford Fire Hall
- Harbour Office
- Memorial Park Office
- Memorial Park Public Changeroom/Washroom
- Patrol A Depot
- Patrol B Depot
- Parks, Rec, and Culture Depot
- Police Station
- Blue Dolphin Pool Office/Storage
- Blue Dolphin Pool Changeroom/Mechanical
- Kin Hall
- Midas Mart/Band Shell
The information obtained from the study will be used for developing operating and capital budgets for each facility.
“This exercise will develop a long term plan for each building that includes recommendations for capital, maintenance, and operations. Each facility report is to provide actionable items relating to the FCA, AA, and EA that can be budgeted and executed to achieve the results stated in the overall report,” said Chapman.
