Port Moody is facing some hefty bills for the maintenance, repair and replacement of city facilities in the coming years, according to a consultant's report discussed at Tuesday's council meeting.
The review stated PoMo has $3.6 million in "catch-up costs," or already overdue maintenance, and another $5.2 million for work that needs to be done in the next five years.
Ron Higo, the city's general manager of community services, said the report was brought to council early so that there is time to absorb the information ahead of upcoming budget discussions.
"Staff has taken the information from the report and prioritized projects in the capital plan," Higo said. "It's quite apparent there are a lot more projects than resources to attend to them but that's not any different than what we see with many other municipalities."
RDH Building Engineering Ltd. examined 21 city facilities to come up with a "facility condition index" (FCI) - the measure of condition relative to the reproduction cost of the building, the backlog of deferred maintenance (catch-up costs), projected future renewal costs (keep-up costs) and projected improvements to existing facilities (get-ahead costs).
The results classified five buildings in "poor" condition: the old No. 1 Fire Hall, which is now being used as storage, received the worst FCI ranking but relatively minor repair costs; Rocky Point Pool came in next but it shows catch-up costs of nearly $257,000 and, due to its nearly 50-year-old status, was flagged for a future replacement cost of nearly $1.3 million; and the Westhill pool and change rooms are overdue for repairs to the tune of $525,000 while near-future costs are $624,000.
The recreation complex was listed in "good" condition but has an overdue maintenance bill of $902,700 and keep-up costs of nearly $2.1 million. RDH notes in its report that most of the issues can be found in the newer portion of the complex, which was built in 2006, including air leakage along the exterior walls of the spa and a spa dehumidification system that does not work properly, causing damage to the roof structure and wood panels.
The RDH report also prioritized catch-up costs. Of 423 work orders, 22 were deemed critical, 108 were potentially critical, 202 were necessary and 91 are recommended, for a total cost of $2.8 million.
Coun. Rick Glumac suggested the consultants come before council to outline the report for new council members and to answer questions.
In other PoMo finance news, the city has brought back its finance committee, which was disbanded in 2012 in favour of a process that saw budget discussions take place at the committee of the whole table.
Coun. Meghan Lahti will chair the committee and Coun. Diana Dilworth will serve as vice-chair; there will be no citizen volunteer members. The first meeting is scheduled for Jan. 20.
