Gibsons is expecting to hand off the new RCMP building sometime this November, beginning a 20-year lease that, for now, the Town will avoid making payments toward.
The new facility is constructed to silver LEED standards and will be heated using the Town’s geo-exchange utility.
“We still actually have to build the geo-thermal field. We’re going to be building that in Brothers Park in the next week or two so they can have their heating system ready to go,” said director of finance Ian Poole.
Given the time it will take for the RCMP to get set up in the new building, “December 1 is probably a realistic target for when we’d actually see police cars going in and out of the building,” Poole said.
The final cost of the project is expected to be in the neighbourhood of $2.4 million after council approved a $150,000 contingency fund.
Payments on the debt will be covered by the RCMP, as the Town of Gibsons, falling under a population of 5,000, is not required to provide a building for the police.
Should a census, the next one being in 2016, reveal that the Town’s population has surpassed that mark, taxpayers will have to begin putting dollars towards the 20-year debt.
The project began in November of 2010 and has included some delays, such as a number of changes being made to the design.
The decades-old RCMP building currently in Gibsons has been described as no longer meeting the needs of the force.
Gibsons provided the land for the project.
“We’re moving into the finishing mode, so that’s, as I say, the mechanical, plumbing, electrical and the painting and that sort of stuff,” Poole said.
Communications and security features are also on the list of projects to be completed before move-in.
