Negotiations with the city to move to the former Greater Nanaimo Water District office lands is “fantastic” and a huge step forward, says Carly Trobridge, president of Nanaimo Search and Rescue.
Nanaimo council gave its staff the go-ahead to begin negotiations with Nanaimo Search and Rescue about relocating to the Greater Nanaimo Water District lands during an open meeting Monday.
Nanaimo Search and Rescue appealed to council a year ago for civic land to build a permanent facility.
It has a million-dollar pledge from an unnamed donor and challenges with the space it currently rents at the old Harewood fire hall, like limited parking and storage and the building not being up to seismic code. Trobridge told council this week that construction costs have risen by about 10 per cent and the province has allowed it to earmark another $200,000 for the project, but the funds have to be spent by March next year. The group wants to build a facility that would allow it to better serve the City of Nanaimo as first responders, but she said it’s come to realize a delay of the project could put the viability of it into question.
“If we were to move forward after facing a further delay, we would need to scale back our construction plans to account for the increase in construction costs and rising inflation,” she said. “We also need to be sensitive to our donor and the fact we’re tying up funds that could potentially be used for another project if this was not to move forward.”
The city has been doing public engagement on the water district lands, and a report to council said a significant portion of input supported a move by search and rescue to 1050 Nanaimo Lakes Road, which has water infrastructure and is currently occupied by parks operation staff. Staff also have enough information from the work done to date to begin lease negotiations.
Trobridge told the News Bulletin that search and rescue hopes to build a vehicle bay and repurpose existing buildings for office space and storage for non-critical equipment.
City staff members expect to return to council for formal approval when negotiations are done.