OUTLOOK - The town of Outlook certainly has a lot on the go right now as many are being reminded at this time of the year that spring and summer are typically known as construction season in Saskatchewan.
Development that's currently surrounding the town offices building will see new parking lots added for staff. Outlook's chief administrative officer, Kevin Trew says the two additions, with one located just behind the building alongside McKenzie Street and next to the Kinsmen Park and the other located at the corner of Saskatchewan Avenue and Thomson Street, should help lift the burden and provide parking for a substantial number of people.
"We're pretty excited about it," he said. "While it won't accommodate all of the staff in this building, it certainly will accommodate more than what we currently do."
With staff currently parking alongside the town offices building, as well as in front of the St. Andrew's United Church, the new lots should help in greatly decreasing that traffic. Trew shared that the new lot at Thomson Street and Saskatchewan Avenue should be able to provide approximately 16 parking spots, while the one behind the town offices should provide around 14 spots. Carrying out the work are local contractors Payne Electric and DLN Construction Ltd., with Trew noting that the latter has been carrying out some unique recycling in relation to the project. DLN, which has been working with the Town for a number of years, had carried out some previous work and removed a substantial amount of asphalt before stockpiling it in their yard. From there, the material was actually repurposed and is being used for the new parking lots.
Trew explained that the costs associated with the new lots were helped by the Town having sold a number of lots for new development. Total costs for the final phase of the project came in at approximately $150,000 for the two lots, with Trew noting that at the moment, the work is slated to come in close to that number.
It's expected that staff can begin using the new parking spaces in the coming weeks, either at the end of May or into June.
Another project currently on the go that has many in the community and beyond excited is the prospect of a new fire hall for the Outlook-Rudy Fire and Rescue team. Trew says that the talk surrounding the idea started as something of a fresh slate given the new faces on both the Town of Outlook and the RM of Rudy councils, but previous things that were learned did serve as influence as far as where both entities wanted the project to go.
"One of the conversations that was had was definitely about the two municipalities coming together and building a new fire hall," said Kevin. "While we started fresh on the whole fire hall concept from previous councils and previous iterations, we tried to take stuff that was learned because there were some learned things in that process. One of the big things that we definitely wanted to do before involving the public too much was getting a solid plan between the two municipalities; what kind of money would we be talking about and be ready to invest into a new fire hall, and how would we fund that. While there are a few schools of thought regarding who should fund the building of a new fire hall, one thing is very clear that there is no assistance from other levels of government. Building a fire hall is very much up to the local authorities and municipalities."
The new hall will be built just south of the Outlook town offices building on McKenzie Street, between the town shop and the former recycling depot. Set to be jointly owned by both the Town and the RM in an equal 50/50 partnership, Trew says that the fundraising campaign is looking both in and outside the community.
"We came to the conclusion that we wanted to start to solicit donations from larger companies," he said. "Not necessarily companies in Outlook, but companies that may be invested in Outlook. One thing I can say is that a group of volunteers have been soliciting donations and sponsorship over the last six to eight months."
As of now, conversations have been had with a number of contractors, but nothing is set in stone and no official i's' or t's have been dotted or crossed. That said, Trew says that the goal of this project is to keep it local as far as who will help bring a new fire hall to life in Outlook.
"Our timeline is such that we're now in the design phase, and the designer is actually just finishing up the design," he said. "We've made communication with local contractors because it was very important that they be involved right from the start. They've been involved in the design, and while they're not at the point where they've said they would provide in-kind sponsorship money to this, a lot of local contractors have said yes; when they get to know what their piece is in this, they will provide some in-kind sponsorship. The plan is that local contractors will be building this."
Serving as the project's technical committee are Trew, RM administrator Trent Sim, fire chief Dalas King, and deputy chief Luke Lockhart, who will be working with contractors and designers to help the project move forward. As well, they'll also be reporting back to the Joint Protective Services Committee and both councils of the Town and RM, working as something of an intermediary to ensure that everything is communicated within all the parties involved.
"The two councils will actually approve the fire hall build," said Trew. "So right now, we're at the point where we're putting the design together, and once that's done, then we'll bring this and an approximation of what we believe the costs to be, and then both the town council and RM council will both be able to say if it's a go or a no-go at that point. From there, our plan is not to tender it, but to actually find a project manager. We plan as the technical committee to act as the general contractor; it's a lot of work for the four of us, but we think we're up to it, as long as we get the right project manager that can help us, as well."
Trew touched on the current timeline for the hall project, which will see a final decision made later this year.
"We feel that there's going to be a go/no-go decision in July of this year, and the final go/no-go decision will be in September or October," he said. "The plan is that, if it's a go, then we may actually do some work this fall related to land prep. From that point, we would actually get into the building part of the project starting in the spring of 2025, with plans to continue building through that year and finish it in 2025, with a move-in at the very latest in the spring of 2026."
With a number of unknown factors still at play here, and even after some number crunching, it's difficult to determine just how much money will be required to see the project come to fruition. Once the project manager is in place, more will be known about the dollar figures that are needed, and ultimately, the decisions will lay with the Town and RM to dictate the course of action on the build.
That being said, Trew says that there is still a budget number that's serving as a target for the time being, but that could change as there are still factors such as the economy and inflation that will likely play a role.
"We have a budget of $1.4 million for this, and we're very certain that we're going to do it for under that number, but we can't make any promises right now," he said. "As everybody's aware, pricing is going up with the economy and inflation being high right now, but we're getting so close. We did some pricing of some different options and all of them were just over a million dollars, so we're really excited about that. We've presented a preliminary design prior to going and getting an actual design from an engineer, and we've presented a preliminary design to the contractor group, and in that group, there are about 30 contractors in Outlook and the close vicinity. We've definitely heard from contractors that it's a very do-able fire hall, and we're really excited about that."
For those who may be interested, a full-color booklet serving as a case for support of the project has been created and is available for pickup at the town office.
