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Sechelt to seek approval for borrowing to fund Operations Centre

Councillors in Sechelt have voted to use an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) to get elector approval to borrow up to $3 million to fund construction of a new Operations Centre to house the public works and parks departments.
Sechelt

Councillors in Sechelt have voted to use an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) to get elector approval to borrow up to $3 million to fund construction of a new Operations Centre to house the public works and parks departments.

In a report to council Aug. 5, director of financial services David Douglas said the budget for the project is $3.6 million, which includes $843,464 that will be drawn from reserves.

Douglas said the total the district will need to borrow is expected to be just more than $2.7 million, but authorization to finance up to $3 million will allow “a small buffer for potential unanticipated costs.”

A request for proposals for the design and construction of the Operations Centre, which will be located on Dusty Road, closed at the end of April and the responses are under review.

Council has the option to use either a referendum or AAP to gain approval for long-term borrowing and Coun. Alton Toth said in this situation he favoured using an AAP – where residents who oppose the loan have to file an objection, but those in favour don’t need to take any action.

“In this particular case I’m a fan of the APP,” he said. “It’s infrastructure we need. We’re not looking at whether it’s something we want to take on, this is something we need to do.”

The council of the day rejected going forward with a loan approval and starting the project in 2018, and Mayor Darnelda Siegers said, “It’s nice to see this moving forward. This has been a long time coming.”

The details for the APP, such as timing and threshold for rejection, will come back to council after the August break.

Council also voted Aug. 5 to put some of the other work needed for the project – such as roads, sewer and water connections, and landscaping – out for tender.