Contract signed University finalizes wage increases with employees. Page 7 No party Independent candidates seek votes in Nanaimo-area ridings. Page 13 New facility Edgewood treatment centre constructs building for programs. Page 3
Clippers win Page 19
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SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
NANAIMO
VOL. 25, NO. 2
Colliery Dam decision now lies with council
Reports from engineers show cost of options available to fix structures at Colliery Dam Park By ToBy gorMaN The NewS BULLeTiN
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
Nurses rally
Natasha Marsh, left, Maeris Boudreau and Jaycille Neville joined dozens of other nurses in a short protest march in front of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital on Dufferin Crescent Thursday following a gathering at the hospital entrance. The B.C. Nurses’ Union is protesting the proposed hiring and shifting of duties to patient care aids, which it says could lead to the loss of 28 nursing positions at NRGH.
Trustees finalize cuts to school budget By JeNN M c garrigle The NewS BULLeTiN
Cuts to services and positions, and moving students around, are all strategies staff and trustees used to balance the books in Nanaimo school district’s 2013-14 budget. Trustees finalized next year’s $133.7-million budget at a special meeting Wednesday evening, after spending the past few weeks debating cuts proposed by staff to make up for a $4.7-million shortfall.
District staff had previously identified $2 million in savings from this year’s and last year’s budgets, including a $1-million clawback to supplies and services budgets this year, but staff still had to find an additional $2.7 million. “Everything’s tight – staffing is tight, supplies are tight,” said Jamie Brennan, school board chairman. “We’re just going to have to be very cautious and vigilant.” Two dozen proposed budget cuts totalling $2.7 million
were debated, and trustees approved the majority of the cuts, except for the proposal to move English-stream students from Davis Road Elementary School – the $107,000 staff expected to save will be taken out of supplies budgets – and the proposal to close the print shop was changed to require the service to operate on a cost recovery basis by charging schools for labour as well as for supplies. u See ‘UNION’ /4
The decision on whether two dams at Colliery Dam Park will be removed, remediated or replaced now lies solely on the shoulders of city council with the completion of conceptual cost estimate reports and a peer review by a professional engineering firm. Both reports were released Thursday. The peer review, performed by Hatch Ltd., also considered several options put forward by representatives of the Colliery Dam Preservation Society and determined that the lowest cost option overall at $6.3 million, including 30 per cent contingencies, is the removal of both dams. Rebuilding both dams is estimated at $11.2 million including contingencies while the estimate to replace only the lower dam is $9.5 million. Estimates to rehabilitate both dams is $30.7 million while removing the middle dam and rehabilitating the lower dam is $17.5 million. “We’re meeting with the city and we have a few questions regarding these numbers,” said Jeff Solomon, spokesman for the Colliery Dam Preservation Society, which organized to preserve the dams and the natural and social values of Colliery Dam Park. “The contingency costs, for one thing, could go either way. They could be 30 per cent more,
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but they could also be 30 per cent less. What they’re saying is they don’t really know what the numbers are. The numbers we’re seeing aren’t anywhere near as far off as we were concerned about as far as replacing the dams go.” Solomon points out that the Hatch Ltd. report says, without contingencies, the estimate to replace both dams is $8.6 million while the removal of both dams is $5.5 million. “That’s much closer than originally thought,” said Solomon. Tom Hickey, general manager of community services, noted that when comparing estimates, capital costs and contingencies should be used. He also noted that rehabilitating the dams is considerably more expensive than replacement because of specialized techniques that would internally reinforce the dams with concrete, and widening the spillway which would require expensive rock removal along the spillway channel. The firm of Klohn Crippen Berger was retained by the city to complete its own cost estimate review and perform the work last fall. In October, when the issue originally surfaced after the provincial Dam Safety Branch deemed the dams a potential threat to human life, city council directed staff to commence with the removal of both dams and drainage of both lakes. u See ‘REPORTS’ /6
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