Greystone Design Group will be leading the initial phase of the Alma community hall project in Wallace Cumming Park.
The Kitchener firm was named project manager for the new hall at a special meeting of council on July 10. Council voted unanimously to accept its $30,765 proposal, including $12,000 for planning and tendering and $18,765 for “contract administration.”
Other price totals ranged from $16,000 to $120,000.
“They were quite diverse in what they were offering [so] the prices were quite diverse as well,” said Finance Director Mike Givens.
He shortlisted 10 proposals for the hall committee to consider the previous evening, and the committee narrowed those down to a few.
“There wasn’t much difference in the last couple,” Mayor John Green said, adding the committee would have been happy with any of those proposals.
But, Givens explained, while they recognized the diversity of the proposals, the committee felt the Greystone proposal best fit the criteria in the township’s request for proposals (RFP) document.
Last month the federal and provincial governments announced the township would receive over $1-million in funding to be put towards the cost of the new community hall.
The township and the Alma Optimist Club will split the remaining third of the total cost of $1,561,700.
The new one-storey hall will be approximately 7,300 square feet in size and include a large hall (2,600 square feet), meeting room (650 square feet), kitchen, bathrooms and storage.
Under the hall agreement signed several months ago, the township will maintain ownership of the hall and property, with a committee overseeing its day-to-day operation.
