Queen’s Park upgrades cost over $200,000 more than the initial estimate, but the chair of the Flin Flon school board says the project was still worth it.
Completed over the summer, the addition of a running track and soccer pitch to the park carried a price tag of $466,200, school division figures show.
“Was it good for the community? I think yeah, big time,” said Trustee Murray Skeavington, chair of the school board.
Skeavington said the park upgrades were financed with surplus dollars.
“At no time did we ever look at making cuts anywhere else to continue this (project),” he said.
The school division purchased Queen’s Park from the City of Flin Flon for $102,600 in 2012.
A consultant’s report then estimated the cost of adding the track and soccer pitch to be $264,000.
But the actual cost came in at $466,200. That was $202,200 – or 77 per cent – higher than projected.
When the price of the land purchase is factored in, the total tab for the project was $568,800. The school division covered 90 per cent of the cost, with the remainder – $54,000 – funded by grants.
The original estimate did not take into account site grading or contingency allowances, and was based on 2012 Winnipeg construction costs rather than higher northern costs.
Nor did the estimate include the $50,000 ultimately needed to remove and reroute MTS, hydro, cable TV and propane lines.
See ‘Estimate’ on pg.
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It was apparent early on that the estimate would prove low. In October 2012, less than three months after the upgrades began, the estimate was revised to $325,000 to pay for additional fill and land-leveling.
“Some of our costs, we couldn’t control,” said Skeavington, who attributed much of the overruns to ensuring proper water flow at the site.
Skeavington said the board has heard questions from the public as to whether the upgrades were necessary given that there are running tracks and soccer pitches elsewhere in the area.
“That argument’s always going to be out there,” he said. “The board felt that it was needed there. So yeah, we’ve heard that (argument) and you deal with it. But...it’s not just for the schools, it’s for the people of Flin Flon.”
Skeavington said “it’s great for the schools” to be able to utilize the park, situated near Hapnot Collegiate and Many Faces Education Centre.
Last fall, junior high students also used the track, and adults from the community have been running on it in the evenings, he added.
The track and soccer pitch represent the first of two phases of planned Queen’s Park upgrades. The second phase is to include basketball, beach volleyball and tennis courts, and a skating rink.
Skeavington is “very hopeful” the second phase can begin in 2014, calling the entire project a nice complement to the vocational training centre and upgraded science lab announced at Hapnot.
“It just makes educational opportunities for everyone more available,” he said.
In 2012, the school division mistakenly reported the initial estimate of the Queen’s Park upgrades as $224,000, but this did not include “part B” of the estimated cost, another $40,000.
The revamped Queen’s Park earlier this year.
FILE PHOTO BY BILL JACKSON
