Thanks to an injection of $100,000 and a bid coming in well below budget, work to restore the Davis Bay Wharf will begin next month.
The District of Sechelt held a press conference April 14 to announce it had accepted Heavy Metal Marine Ltd. of Nanaimo’s bid of $312,989 to do the work, which was considerably lower than the estimated $600,000 project cost.
Also on April 14, the Sunshine Coast Community Forest announced they would inject $100,000 into the project from their new legacy fund set up this year.
That brings the total raised for the project to date through grants and community donations to $518,000, which is enough to finish the project.
However, the District is now looking at “some extras” Mayor John Henderson said.
“There’s a variety of opportunities. I guess the key things are making sure we’ve got electricity, potentially water, out to the end of the wharf so that we can have, I don’t know, maybe afternoon concerts or perhaps occasionally some other special events,” Henderson said. “It’s just one of those things that if you can do it now it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than discovering in a year, ‘gee I wish we had put in something.’ So we’re still working with the community and with Pelagic [Technologies Inc.] on what’s feasible.”
Henderson noted that if anyone had any “clever” ideas the District would “like to hear them.”
If the project doesn’t end up costing more due to the “extras,” a portion of the Island Coastal Economic Trust’s $150,000 grant could be lost.
It was based on the estimated $600,000 figure.
“The Island Coastal Economic Trust will contribute the lesser of $150,000 or one-quarter of the project costs,” a press release from the District stated.
Either way there’s enough money in the coffers to complete the basic project, which has been pushed by the Wharf Rats Committee (a group born of the Davis Bay/Wilson Creek/Selma Park Community Association) since 2011.
“I want to say thank you to mayor and council, Ray Parfitt and all the staff that worked towards supporting the project,” Wharf Rats chair Marg Pearson said at the April 14 press conference.
Henderson thanked Pearson for her group’s perseverance.
“I know council wouldn’t have been as confident without the support that we saw and the energy and the persistence of the Wharf Rats and the Davis Bay community association,” Henderson said.
A total of 10 bids came in for the project, ranging from $312,989 to over $740,000.
Henderson said that staff from the District and Pelagic Technologies Inc. reviewed the bids to make sure the best was selected.
“Heavy Metal Marine I gather, has the materials they need so they can start that much faster than some of the others and their price was extremely competitive, so while we always try to find a local supplier, in this case the difference was significant enough that we chose Heavy Metal Marine,” he said.
Work will begin on the wharf in the early part of May, when it will have to be closed to the public. Construction should be complete, and the wharf reopened, by the end of June.
