Grande Prairie Mayor Bill Given says he understands the frustration by residents when big-ticket projects are behind schedule, but suggests that it’s an anomaly, not the norm. This comes after the opening of the Grande Prairie Outdoor Pool, which opened this past weekend, two years after construction began.
In that instance, city officials said it was a lack of consistently dry weather which slowed progress down to a halt, as it caused consultation crews to continuously delay trying to apply multiple layers of the pool basin coating.
“In some cases, it may be because materials don’t arrive from overseas when they are supposed to, it may be due to weather and the ability to do construction in certain types of weather or it may be [down] to deficiencies in the project where the city isn’t willing to accept it until it’s absolutely perfect.”
Given said he believes the problems aren’t the end product of the city’s system of choosing the companies in charge of each major build or rehabilitation project.
“I don’t think that there is a systemic issue that is the same across all of these, I would say that the city is ensuring that Grande Prairie control value for taxpayer dollars and sometimes that means that we have wait to get the perfect product rather than try and rush it out the door and getting a lower quality.”
The outdoor pool area had remained closed to the public since 2013 when a crack in the structure was found.