Following a presentation from City of North Bay engineering staff, North Bay City Council is poised, once again, to vote on awarding a $340,000 design contract for the reconstruction of Main Street.
Coun. Mark King pressed the issue of keeping the design work for the project — slated to begin in 2022 — in-house instead of contracting the work out. Two weeks ago, King's colleagues voted to examine the matter further at the committee level, as Coun. Mac Bain put it, "leave no questions unanswered."
See original story: Report: Main Street 'beyond rehabilitation'
See also: King: Keep Main Street design in-house, save $340K
Adam Lacombe, the City's Senior Capital Program Engineer got the ball rolling during Tuesday's infrastructure and operations committee of council meeting. Lacombe indicated a multi-disciplinary planning team is needed for this project, requiring skills of a landscape architect, urban planner, and a focus on traffic signals and lighting.
R.V. Anderson Associates Limited, which is the preferred choice for the contract following a City evaluation process, would also determine whether the reconstruction should involve brick or pavement as part of the design work. Lacombe noted the company has extensive streetscaping experience, including work performed as a landscape architect in downtown North Bay in the 1980s.
Lacombe noted the City's engineering services currently has approximately 60 projects in various states of completion on the go. The crux of the City's argument to contract the design work out for this project is a lack of available resources to do so and poor timing to take on a project with an imminent start date. To tender the project late this year and begin construction early next would require reassigning staff working on other projects to the Main Street design, advised Lacombe. Those other projects would then be forced to be deferred and/or contracted out.
"Outsourcing is the optimal way to go," added Lacombe, to ensure "timely tendering of the project."
Coun. Mac Bain, who had endorsed returning the matter to the committee level following King's objection two weeks prior when it first appeared before Council. He thanked Lacombe for the presentation and observed, "It was important to have an opportunity to hear what the scope of the project is."
In summing up the presentation, Bain asked Lacombe, "If we decide to do this in-house, we would put other projects in jeopardy?"
"That's correct," responded Lacombe.
King conducted the meeting as both the committee's chair, Coun. Chris Mayne, and Coun. George Maroosis declared conflicts as they are downtown business owners.
King raised the possibility of using an integrated project management model with City Engineer John Severino, who admitted the City had not yet had the opportunity to employ such a strategy while noting applying it to this particular project at this time would likely cause further delays.
King then stated he is "concerned we'll end up down the road with a project unable to be funded in the capital budget."
He later wondered why the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are not being considered. "Are downtown business owners able to live through two years of construction?" following the pandemic, he asked.
Coun. Scott Robertson and King both asked the City staff about consultation with downtown business owners. Both Severino and Lacombe advised there would be opportunities early on in the design phase. Severino noted the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan had made contact with thousands of stakeholders in its development phase, over the course of 18 months.
Coun. Dave Mendicino, who sits on the Downtown North Bay board again shared the optimism of his fellow board members regarding the project and objected to King's inference that some downtown business owners had not been adequately consulted. "You've been discussing this for two days, this has been going on for two years," he said.
"There will be a framework for input very early in the process," advised Severino, to "take into consideration and make adjustments, if necessary."
King attempted to move the matter back to committee for further study but was stymied. With Mayne and Maroosis in conflict, the committee voted 8-1 to move the award of the design contract back to Council for a vote.
