City goes to tender for pool/arena complex

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Published on June 18, 2008

Published on February 12, 2010

Martin C.  

By Martin C. Barry

Having listened to feedback from residents during an extensive public consultation on the reconstruction and refurbishment of the Westmount pool and arena, the City has launched the first call for contractors for the multi-million-dollar project. A first call for professional services tenders has been made for the architectural design and engineering of the new facility. The City maintains that taking these measures at this time will facilitate planning for the interior of the building, based on the input received from the community. Tenders are being accepted at city hall until Thursday, July 3, at noon. They will be publicly opened at 12:05 p.m. in the city council chamber. Preliminary plans prepared by the consultants are to be made public at a later date so the City can obtain further feedback. "Now we're just looking at hiring the professionals to do the design work," Mayor Karin Marks told the Examiner. "The first thing they'll have to do is to look at the site, to look at what's possible." Nearly $26.5 million could be spent rebuilding the complex, according to an application for subsidies the City sent to the province. At the outset, the City wants the building to include two ice rinks, an outdoor pool, a youth centre and room for auxiliary services. The funding application, which was released last month to some residents who requested it, anticipates the work starting in April 2009, with September 2010 given as the date for completion. The complex was built in 1957 and has long been on a list of municipal buildings slated for renewal. Westmount hopes a significant amount of the project's cost will be paid by the province. While the City has made public the feedback received by phone and mail and during a one-day consultation held at Victoria Hall in April, the administration has consistently refused to post a feasibility study completed around a decade ago, on the grounds that it is dated. "We thought there was no point in putting on a 1999 configuration," Marks said earlier this week. Residents present at the consultation were given the opportunity to express their points of view on five different themes: the pool, ice skating and hockey, the youth centre, services provided to users (such as food and sports concessions), and any other aspect not covered by the identified themes. Discussions groups, sitting at tables, were composed of residents, moderators, municipal councillors and City employees. According to a summary of the feedback posted on the City's web site, some of the participants were concerned by environmental issues. Others expressed interest in issues relating to traffic and safety. In terms of the building infrastructure itself, the limited size and inadequacy of the existing facilities were also discussed. Several people suggested that the future location of the complex should also be reviewed. Noting the ecological concerns expressed, the City may be taking these into special account before reaching a final decision. The Westmount Healthy City Project environment committee recommended, among other things, that the complex be a "carbon neutral" building with no emissions and a minimum footprint, that building materials from the existing structure be reused or that used materials be purchased, that the roof should be "green," and that geothermal heating be used with solar panels mounted on the walls and roof.