Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

The town’s elected officials have awarded the construction tender for the new fire hall to a construction firm after an exhaustive search.

It took two separate request for proposals (RFP) processes to find a builder for the fire hall. The most recent efforts by the town have resulted in a construction tender going to Quorex Construction Ltd., a contracting firm based out of Saskatoon.

Council passed a resolution at a meeting on Sept. 10 to award the project to Quorex Construction based on the adjudicated results of the town’s fire hall design-build RFP. The town had previously put out a build-to-design RFP, but a miscommunication between the designer and an engineering firm caused too much confusion and a second RFP had to be published.

The proposed tender price for the fire hall is nearly $2.82 million. According to a town official, Quorex Construction has been involved in several design-build projects including fire hall projects at Val Marie and CFB Dundurn.

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Mayor Rod Perkins said the town has “been going through a fairly extensive project” to find a builder for the fire hall. He noted that there were five proposals in response to the RFP and a committee adjudicated the proposals last week. The committee brought forward a recommendation to award the project to Quorex Construction.

Deputy Mayor Shaun Henry said it has been a lengthy process to lock down a builder for the fire hall. He said it has been nice to have support and involvement from Fire Chief Ron Hope throughout the process, but also from the Rural Municipality of Kindersley.

The deputy mayor said it is nice to see another project coming to fruition in the community. Council heard that the plan now is to get shovels in the ground by May 2019 and Councillor Gary Becker said spring is the perfect time to start.

Evaluation criteria used by the adjudication committee was outlined in the RFP. The five proposals were scored on business qualifications including design experience, members of their team’s individual experience, project costs, references and conduct on past projects with the Town of Kindersley.

Other meeting highlights

• Council has passed a resolution to give the third and final reading to adopt an amendment bylaw with respect to the town’s Official Community Plan bylaw.

Bylaw 10-18, a bylaw to amend Bylaw 03-14 known as the town’s Official Community Plan (OCP), was adopted at the meeting on Sept. 10 after council conducted a public hearing and passed resolutions to give the second and third readings to the amendment bylaw.

The amendment bylaw replaces a map in the OCP to reflect a change to future land use. The new map shows a change in zoning on 11th Avenue East from multi-unit residential (R3) land to highway commercial (C3) land. The rezoned land is located east of the Walmart Store and it is believed to be for a new hotel development.

As per the requirements, council advertised the amendment bylaw and conducted a public hearing on Sept. 10. The first reading for Bylaw 10-18 was given at the council meeting that was held back on Aug. 20.

Mayor Rod Perkins called for comments from the public, but no one showed up to speak to the proposed bylaw. He asked Kim Vogel, the town’s director of transportation and environmental services, if any written correspondence was submitted to the town in relation to the bylaw, and she said, “we did not receive anything.” After making a final call for public feedback, Perkins concluded the hearing and resolutions were passed to adopt the bylaw.

• The town’s elected officials have given the first reading to a bylaw to amend the town’s Zoning Bylaw to dedicate land to accommodate mobile home land.

Bylaw 11-18, a bylaw to amend Bylaw 04-14 known as the town’s Zoning Bylaw, would amend the zoning of Future Urban Development (FUD) land west of Golf View Mobile Acres to mobile home residential (R4) land. The amendment bylaw will be advertised and brought back to the table on Oct. 9.

Kim Vogel, the town’s director of transportation and environmental services, said the land is FUD district and the change to R4 district will allow the land to be developed for mobile homes and recreational vehicles as permitted land uses.

Councillor Randy Ervine asked if a representative of the Kindersley Regional Park Authority board reached out to the town because there is a concern with a water line that runs through the parcel of land where the change will occur. Ervine, a member of the board, said it became a topic at a recent meeting because the water line feeds the golf course.

Vogel said nothing will change with respect to the new zoning, so the change does not affect existing easements in place on the land. She noted that she would reach out to the board to ensure there are no further concerns.

• Members of council have passed a resolution to proclaim Sept. 10 as Suicide Prevention Day in the Town of Kindersley. The resolution praises the efforts of sisters Callie, Jaclyn and Shalyn Kennedy of Kindersley and their non-profit project known as Life is Worth Living. The sisters work to raise awareness about mental health and suicide, and to decrease the stigma in the memory of their older sister Brianne, who took her own life.

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