Grey Highlands is facing significant costs to restore the Feversham sand dome property.
At its meeting on May 17, Grey Highlands council approved a staff recommendation to waive the municipality’s procurement policy to allow staff to negotiate directly with Van Pelt Construction to refine a quotation to restore the sand dome facility.
Grey Highlands recently completed an agreement to purchase the sand dome, located just outside of Feversham, from Grey County. The building previously had a fabric roof, but that was ripped beyond repair and must be replaced.
Grey Highlands staff spoke with multiple construction firms about possibilities for the property and two options emerged: use the existing foundation to build a new roof or build a whole new building on the site.
“Restoring the existing dome with the new superstructure on the existing foundation will allow the municipality to keep the 8,000-square-foot space for storage of material and equipment for the same price as a new roughly 60-foot-by-80-foot rectangular building (4,800 sq. ft.),” Director of Transportation Chris Cornfield said in his report.
Waiving the procurement policy would allow staff to work directly with Van Pelt Construction to develop an exact quote for the work. An estimate provided with the report suggested the project would cost more than $600,000.
“We do have a time restriction,” said Cornfield, with the work unlikely to be completed before the early fall. “Van Pelt would like to do further investigation.”
Cornfield said staff hope to present a more finalized price at council’s next meeting in June.
