The City of Duncan is hoping to add another $40,000 to its current $1.2-million budget for its long-standing plan to upgrade Station Street Park and surrounding area.
Council has decided to apply to the Island Coastal Economic Trust’s Community Placemaking Program for a grant of $40,000 for the city’s delayed Station Street Placemaking Project.
Kyle Young, the city’s director of planning and sustainability, told council its meeting on May 22 that the grant would be a good fit for the Station Street project.
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He said that if the grant application is successful, it would bolster the project’s budget and allow the city a little more flexibility in its design.
“The advice we received is that in the particular grant program, the decisions are not made by ICET’s board, but at the staff level, so the decisions are made very quickly,” Young said.
The Station Street project would see significant improvements to Station Street Park, enhancements to the Station Street/Craig Street intersection and immediate surrounding area, and the installation of public washrooms.
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This project intends to transform Station Street Park into a dynamic public space that will serve as a hub for community events, festivals, and other activities.
The project was scheduled to be completed by this summer, but Duncan’s CAO Peter de Verteuil told council at its meeting on April 15 that all the bids from construction companies to take on the project that came in before the deadline at the end of March were over budget.
He said, as a result, the next step for the city is to work with the project’s consultant to revise elements of the design to achieve a comparable outcome with lower costs, and then to re-tender the project.
The city received a $1-million grant from B.C.’s Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program for the project in April, 2023, and the municipality intends to kick in an additional $200,000.
