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Oak Bay awards contract for municipal hall renovation

$470,000 will go towards cracked walls, ripped flooring
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A collage of damaged areas in need of repair in Oak Bay municipal hall, including carpet hazards, missing wall pieces and interior water damage. (District of Oak Bay images)

Oak Bay awarded its municipal hall renovation to Aral Construction.

Aral outbid three other offers with the winning tender of $470,000.

The bids ranged from Gibraltar Holdings/Terian Ventures at $1.5 million, to Traugott for $723,000, and Canpro, $510,000. However, project manager Dave Cockle explained that the Gibraltar/Terian offer may have had a mishap as their final bid came in as a set of blank pages and could have had a lower number.

Oak Bay Municipal Hall Renovation from The District of Oak Bay on Vimeo.

READ ALSO: Million dollar reno will update Oak Bay municipal hall

It’s part of a total of $1.3 million council approved in the fall to renovate and redesign municipal hall’s open office area, stairs, and the offices that Oak Bay Volunteer Services currently occupy and will soon occupy in the Monterey Recreation Centre.

Oak Bay municipal hall in the 1950s. (District of Oak Bay video screenshot)

“[This will help staff] continue to function in this building and to make decisions on other buildings in the municipality that have to be renovated or updated,” Cockle said.

Oak Bay municipal hall hasn’t undergone any interior redecorating since the 1980s and some of the furniture dates back to the early 1960s.

Director of engineering and public works, Dan Horan, noted that staff are crammed in certain areas. A staff video shows a series of deteriorating fixtures in municipal hall.

READ MORE: Revamped Oak Bay Volunteer Services in need of donations, volunteers

“The idea with the reno is to update the workspaces and reorganize the layout to get as many people in as possible while following the modern workspace rules,” Horan said in the video.

The carpet in the main open area is stained and bubbling. The carpet on the stairs is buttoned down with steel rivets. The walls have cracks in multiple places from water damage.

reporter@oakbaynews.com


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