City of Cranbrook council Feb. 10 approved additional funds for the repair of Boiler No. 1 at Western Financial Place (WFP), including the overage $30,000 and another $30,000 to be funded from the Facilities Reserve fund, as the actual costs have come in higher than the previous estimate provided.

There are two 3.3 million BTU boilers at Western Financial Place which operate three main functions: domestic hot water, main source of building heat, and heat source for the pool water.

Unfortunately, Boiler No. 1 is experiencing early failure and must be replaced to continue to operate the facility.

In an Engineer’s Report, the recommendation regarding the boilers was to replace both boilers using two replacement units each.

The city’s HVAC/Plumber has recommended use of more readily available appliances which do not require specialty certifications for maintenance and repair and would see replacement of one of the large boilers with four smaller boilers each with 850,000 BTUs.

The sole source award decision was based on protecting the infrastructure and assets using the most reliable information available at the time. An emergency repair was required, and immediate ordering of the boilers was critical due to concern around timelines that had been provided for receipt of the boilers.

Although staff had reviewed suppliers, the order was made as a sole source to expedite the delivery of new boilers.

The city’s Asset Management Steering Committee will be leading the corporation in defining the levels of emergencies for capital assets, including the re-write of the city’s existing Purchasing Policy.

The resulting redrafting of the policy, which does not currently provide robust purchasing guidance in the case of emergencies, will improve our processes for future emergency procurements.

City of Cranbrook photo

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