Joint Meeting of the Renovation Committee and the Finance Committee
I am writing to report on the joint meeting held this afternoon (October 18) with the Renovation Committee and the Finance Committee to discuss the potential financial commitment by the Board to the Firehall Renovation project. The Councillor also attended the meeting. You will recall that we have effectively committed (because it is the terms of the charity) the funds in the Firehall Renovation Fund to this project. Funds there now stand at approximately $200,000. In addition in a resolution passed some two years ago the Board committed effectively $57,000 to the project from our reserves. The City is already aware of these commitments and have factored these into the funds available to complete the project.
We were meeting to determine how much additional funding we could commit from our reserves for the project based on final numbers from the City on total project costs. As you know we had to cancel a special meeting with the Board on October 8 because at our last meeting with the City we were not able to get these numbers. The City had promised to give us these numbers by October 17. They did not arrive for our meeting on October 18.
The reason these numbers are critical to us in determining a contribution to the project is the budget envelop is very tight and several components of the final design were still not confirmed due to design uncertainties (e.g. such as whether we would need an in ground transformer to provide power to the building which could add up to $100,000 to costs and reduce the space available to the courtyard). As it stands the budget available to the City will only cover the basic addition and will not cover things such as finishing the new Kitchen, finishing the new activity room in the basement, renovating the upstairs bathrooms and the lounge and the room we normally meet in as a Board). Whatever additional funds we commit will cover some part of these additional elements, but without the City final numbers we have no idea how much will be required.
At the meeting we reviewed the OSCA financial statements and discussed an appropriate recommendation to the Board. We came to the following conclusions:
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there is no point in making a funding recommendation to the Board until we have final numbers from the City
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there is room in our reserves to make a further significant financial contribution beyond the existing $57,000 and still have an adequate financial reserves both to cover potential losses during the year we are running programming outside the community centre and provide a financial cushion for other unforeseen contingencies
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while we have a good idea of what the financial risks are during the year we will be running programming outside the Firehall, these estimates could do with a further analysis to harden up the numbers so we can ensure the right sums are reserved
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in light of the above we will continue to wait for final estimates from the City and make a recommendation to the Board on a funding strategy for its next meeting in November.
The Councillor also reported that he is looking into having the City make an application to the federal government for a grant to assist with the heritage renovation of the building. This could also help with the funding amounts and also would add an additional level of government support for the project.
In addition, and on the Councillor's advice, the Renovation committee will turn its attention now to the lobbying strategy for the project. I am proposing that this meeting be held at the Firehall on Tuesday, October 28 at the Firehall at 7:30. Could Renovation Committee members let Deirdre and I know if you can attend on that evening. Other Board members are welcome to participate in this meeting if they wish.
Michael Jenkin
President
OSCA