No there hasn't been a jail break, the open door policy at the RCMP station reflects the work now underway as part of the jail cell renovation project
Work has begun on the city's renovation for the Prince Rupert RCMP detachment's jail cells, with Marcan Construction busy to the task of bringing the city's jail cell facility up to Federal standards.
The need for renovations has been a frequent topic for the City to review over the last year, with the current project first introduced in June of 2017, that after Council was presented with a number of options to consider.
Among them were the prospect of closure for the jail cell and the costly transfer of prisoners to other facilities in the province, with Prince Rupert to pick up that bill.
The Construction of a Temporary facility was also on the short list, but the cost of such a path was actually more than the minimal modifications that would bring the existing structure up to code.
Council was also presented the option of hiring more guards for the prisoner area, with it estimated that the City would have had to double the guard contingent until a new building was constructed.
The project which came in with a bid price of 456,000 dollars will buy the City a bit of time as they look to explore the larger requirement of providing for a new RCMP detachment in the city.
The City's RCMP detachment will see renovation work on the jail cells take place starting next month, with a timeline to completion of ten weeks
A late addition to the City Council Agenda for Monday night has provided for the cost and the timeline for a critical improvement for the RCMP detachment's jail cells, with the City's Financial Officer Corinne Bomben delivering her report for Council members at the Monday session.
The work which is required to bring the jail cell component of the detachment up to federal compliance was awarded to Marcan Construction which has received the go ahead for the job after providing the only bid on the contract. The bid which was listed at 456,800 dollars was down somewhat from the original estimate from March of 480,000 dollars.
Though as part of her presentation, Ms. Bomben did caution that while the project is within budget, should any change orders be required, an amendment to the City's Financial Plan may be required.
With the renovation project now moving ahead, the timeline will see work start in May with completion expected within ten weeks.
You can review her short overview of the contract award from the City's Video Archive below starting at the twenty seven minute mark.
The theme of the need for a new detachment, along with the now seemingly far off in the distance fire hall replacement, has been a long running issue for successive City Council's.
Each one more or less having kicked the can down the road, a kick that goes back to the days of the pulp mill closure and how the economic downturn that followed has overshadowed much of the city's discussions on the issue.
Those that are regular readers of the blog, have been following along with us over the last six years as we charted the path of that poor old can, you can review some of the background to the issue below...
The topic of the jail cell renovations, along with the need for a new detachment and even a new facility for the Fire Department, could be something that those attending tonight's Town Hall with the Mayor may wish to inquire about.
Perhaps along with a few follow up questions as to why the current City Council has squandered much of their four year term when it comes to addressing the topic.
Having rarely discussed the issue in public session, Council is now seemingly set to leave the larger decision on the new detachment project to the next council to be elected in October.
In March the path ahead suggested that once a decision to move ahead on the replacement project is made, construction could start by 2020, with the completed detachment ready for service by 2023.
Much of the City's focus on the need for a new detachment of late has been directed towards the cost of a new facility (a debt requirement estimate last estimated at some 30 million dollars) and just how the project should be paid for and who should be contributing.
Considering that the City has previously stated that the District of Port Edward should be funding some of the bill for the Prince Rupert detachment through a diversion of the District's share of the Ridley Tax Sharing Agreement; the folks in Port Edward may want to send someone over to the Lester Centre tonight to take notes, just in case the topic comes up as part of the presentation.
