From a tiny link on the RM website
PUBLIC NOTICE is hereby given
that a Special Meeting of
Council has been called for Friday,
August 15th, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. in the Council
Chambers of the Rural Municipality of Portage la
Prairie to discuss the following items pertaining to
the multiplex recreation facility:
•
Tender 1 Package
•
Land Lease Agreement
Thank you.
Council of the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie
A select group of people received this invite today.
The Province of Manitoba
and
The Government of Canada
with
The City and RM of Portage la Prairie
invite you to an announcement and sod turning
ceremony under the
Canada-Manitoba Infrastructure Program
Date: Monday August 18th, 2008
Time 3:00 PM
Location: The Portage Fairground Just North of the Grandstand in the City of Portage la Prairie
For more information, contact:
Marcus Miller
Communications Coordinator
Canada-Manitoba Infrastructure Secretariat
Tel 204-945-8778 or 1-800-268-4883
Looks like some action today at the fair grounds, it appears they are removing the chain link fence from around the racetrack and repositioning it around the outside of what will be the construction area.
I wonder how safe the track will be for the possible last Great Western Harness Racing meet scheduled for August 30-31 2008 ?
How can they start work without any tenders yet being accepted?
How can they start demolition when the Fair Board agreement has not been passed by either council ?
Why was the City’s special council meeting abruptly canceled just minutes before the scheduled start time today?
Is it because the first tender came in so over budget they don’t want the public to find out ?
Inquiring minds want to know……..
Posted From the Portage Daily Graphic Thursday July 31st
A group of ratepayers from the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie are taking their concerns over the RM’s funding of the proposed PCU Centre to court.
On Tuesday morning, a group of roughly 70 residents met with Grant Driedger, a legal representative with Smith Neufeld Jodoin Law Offices in Carman, to discuss their legal options.
“There’s a group of ratepayers from pretty much across the RM, who have significant concerns with the borrowing and the amount of funding that the RM is proposing to put into the multiplex,” explained Driedger after the meeting. “The concerns are both that it’s being done and also how it’s been done.
“At this point, we will be proceeding to bring a court application to get the court to take a look at how this has happened, and whether the RM has done what they needed to do.”
He said the main argument his firm will make in the application is that a new borrowing bylaw should be required from the RM because of the changes made in the multiplex’s plans.
“Initially, the proposal was two arenas, a competitive pool and various other things,” explained the lawyer. “When the cost figures came in higher than they initially expected, they had to scale that down considerably.
“So the bylaw that they’re relying on to authorize them borrowing money to
fund the project was based on Plan A, and now they’re going ahead with Plan
B, so they’re borrowing the same amount of money, but getting a significantly lesser facility.”
Posted from the Portage Daily Graphic Friday August 1st
Lowering the estimated costs associated with building the PCU Centre in Portage to an affordable level was not free for the City and Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie.
The city will pay Stantec Architectural Ltd. an extra $215,135 plus tax for the work the company did redesigning the complex, after the initial costs came in over budget.
At a special council meeting held at city hall on Thursday, councillors voted in favour of the payment.
“When we had to reconfigure some of the components of the multiplex, they had to go back to the drawing board and do a lot of redesign,” explained Mayor Ken Brennan. “So this is the bill for our request for a redesign.”
When the original plans came in at a cost of nearly $42 million, Stantec scaled back the plans by removing the competitive pool and phasing in the second arena originally included in the plans for the project.
Brennan explained the additional costs of the redesign have already been included in the current estimate of $35.7 million needed to build the revised PCU Centre project.
The city’s approval of the payment is conditional on whether the additional design fee is approved by the RM of Portage, which has agreed to reimburse the city for one-third of the design costs for the project.
The RM will vote on the additional fee at its next council meeting scheduled for Aug. 5.