Flin Flon city council has signed off on a seven-figure deal to upgrade the city’s public works shop and continue public transit in the short and long term.
Council plans to spend $1.25 million to buy the Northern Bus Lines (NBL) garage, hire the company to provide public transit for up to a year, and purchase two buses for a planned municipal-run public transit system.
The garage, located on Golf Road, is the centrepiece of the deal as the city plans to convert the spacious building into a public works shop to replace its aging facility on Channing Drive.
Under the deal, NBL will continue to provide public transit services for the city until May 1, 2015 at the earliest and Sept. 1, 2015 at the latest.
The company will sell two 37-seat buses to the city, which plans to launch its own public transit system once NBL bows out.
Option
NBL must also offer the city the option of purchasing a third bus, a 26-seater, with the price tag to be negotiated separately.
The deal is contingent on the city securing financing approval from the Manitoba Municipal Board, which oversees municipal lending.
As a down payment in 2014, the city has agreed to give NBL a tax break of $29,991, money that will be subtracted from the $1.25 million owed by the city.
Council has argued that the purchase of the NBL garage is a good deal for taxpayers given the poor state of the current public works shop and the high cost of erecting large
new buildings.
The city will still have to invest potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrofit the garage to meet the city’s purposes. An architect has already determined retrofitting is possible.
As for the purchase of buses, the city takes the position that a scaled-down public transit system remains important to the community.
