Belleville City Hall. (Photo: Nicole Kleinsteuber / Quinte News)
The reasoning behind an almost half million dollar increase in the cost of constructing a new police station is sure to be a topic of discussion at Belleville City council Monday night.
At its meeting, council will be asked to approve hiring Shoalts and Zaback Architects for architectural services for design and construction for $1.5 million (at a cost to the city at $1.37 million) as opposed to the $1 million cost proposed in May.
Shoalts and Zaback is the company that proposed building on the Veridian site – which council approved earlier this year.
In May, staff proposed suspending normal procedures and moving ahead with awarding the contract to Shoalts and Zaback at $939,070 plus HST. Now the price tag totals $1,345,000 plus HST.
Councillor Jack Miller said they assumed they would see the same kind of offer coming through the RFP.
There is a $150,000 contingency that all of the bidders had to include in their proposals in the event that they had to go to an outside consultant but he still plans on asking for an explanation on the increase on Monday.
Our newsroom has reached out to Mayor Taso Christopher and CAO Rick Kester for comment.
Council meets Monday at 4 p.m. at city hall.
Meanwhile, council has also called a special meeting Monday morning to talk about proposed renovations to the Yardmen Arena. That meeting gets underway at 8 a.m.
