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From Woodstock Sentinel-Review
The Town of Ingersoll hired Nicholson Sheffield Architects Inc. of London as the firm to design their Multi-Use Recreation Centre (MURC).
The blueprints for Ingersoll’s proposed recreation complex should soon be ready to review.
The Town of Ingersoll just hired London’s Nicholson Sheffield Architects Inc. – a veteran firm that has designed several residential and commercial buildings in London and St. Thomas – to design its ambitious multi-use recreation centre, a needed next step in its application for provincial and federal funding.
Ingersoll CAO William Tigert told Ingersoll council its application will be more attractive to senior government decision makers if the project is close to “shovel ready.”
The report noted it’s unknown what the total design costs will be, but an updated financial analysis will be part of the 2020 budget. In the Nicholson Sheffield contract, fees ranged from $80 to $225 an hour, depending on the employee involved in the work.
The recreation centre project itself could cost as much as $22 million. If the town’s application is successful, the Investing in Canada Infrastructure program will pick up to 73 per cent of the price tag.
The long-discussed recreation centre has been a hot topic for the town for several years, but has come together quickly in the past few months as the town prepared its submission for the infrastructure program.
Councillors decided on the details for the recreation centre at their August meeting.
The centre will include an ice pad, an indoor walking track, a community room and a full gymnasium while allowing the opportunity to add an additional rink and other features down the road.
To put it together quickly, council agreed not to go through a bid and tender process, and essentially handpicked Nicholson Sheffield Architects.
The selection made the firm the sole source for the design, tendering and contract supervision if the project is selected for funding. A staff report stated the process should take four to six months. If the town had gone the normal route of the bid and tender, the process could have taken closer to a year.
Given the competition for the funding – a federal, provincial and municipal cost share that will invest $30 billion over the next decade – and the looming deadline, council decided to move quickly on project preparation to improve its chance of being selected under the program’s $1.3-billion community, culture and recreation stream.
If Ingersoll isn’t picked for the this round of funding, the town can carry forward the design for the 2021 intake, Tigert said.
“Since there is no guarantee that the town and its project will be selected and approved, the contract stipulates that only the detailed design work and associated costs would be applicable,” the staff report stated.
Council previously selected town-owned land at Clarke Road as the recreation centre’s future home since an earlier preferred location at 99 North Town Line East required a boundary adjustment with Zorra Township.