Festival Square costs have downtown project in limbo
By Tim Kalinowski on June 16, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com The much hyped Festival Square project downtown at 3rd Avenue South and 6th Street South might not be happening this year after all as city council heard on Tuesday that the lowest bid received to do the work was $485,000 over the $900,000 approved for funding by the province.According to the City’s Urban Revitalization manager Andrew Malcolm the overage was due to inflationary pressures in the construction industry because of a backlog of projects coming out of COVID-19 this summer, and high material costs.
City council briefly considered a motion to provide the $485,000 from other funding set aside for infrastructure in the city, but ultimately decided to refer the motion to the June 29 city council meeting to see if the province was willing to either extend the deadline for the $900,000 in catalytic funding into 2022 or if the City could reallocate the funds to another project more within its means at this time.
Malcolm was asked by councillors if there was any way to complete the Festival Square project within the $900,000 budget without the addition of the $485,000 in city funds? Malcolm told council his team had already scaled back the project as much as it could, and would seek a suspension of the project altogether until future funding became available rather than to try to stuff it into the $900,000 grant allotted by the province if city council deemed the additional $485,000 investment too much at this time.
The province had put a Dec. 31 deadline to either spend the money received for the project or lose it- as it was intended to be short term stimulus money to get the local economy moving. Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
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