Daily Courier Tuesday, 07 May 2013 18:00 J.P. SQUIRE:
Delivering a new home for Kelowna RCMP is a long, drawn-out birthing process.
The seed was planted more than nine months ago, double that in fact, and
the gestation period could be another three to four years.
After years of complaints that RCMP members were tripping over each
other (and municipal staff) at the crowded Doyle Avenue detachment,
forensics, traffic and long-term storage were moved to another location
in 2007 "as a short-term solution."
However, pleas by then-superintendent Bill McKinnon and a staffing study recently convinced city council to add another
22 members over four years.
The 40,000-square-foot existing detachment is now home to 260 staff, 160
of them RCMP members, minus those three operations working at a
5,000-square-foot off-site office.
The new detachment is expected to have about 86,000 square feet, about
double the current space. In the long term, more than 300 RCMP members,
municipal staff, auxiliaries, Crime Stoppers and volunteers will call it
home.
"It is complex. We're working really closely with the RCMP; they have
been really great to work with. We want a real Kelowna-based solution.
We don't want to have to move the RCMP again. That's the problem with
Doyle Avenue: there's no more space around for expansion. The feeling
was find them a site where they can be forever," said project manager
Kristine Bouw, the city's building and facility planner.
"We're quite good in the city at keeping our buildings working and
operating. It depends on how we design it, but it will be their home for
50 years minimum." (more)
The $46-million price tag in the city's current capital plan includes
site and off-site improvements as well as construction.
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