Morinville Leisure Centre update shows facility under budget and under approved borrowing

The Morinville Leisure Centre project is $617,173 under budget and will finance $856,097 less than planned.

by Colin Smith

The Morinville Leisure Centre project is coming in under budget and with less money borrowed to pay for it than was approved.

Town Council received a quarterly financial update on the centre at its Nov. 26 regular meeting.

Cost of the overall project is forecast at $28,128,827 (excluding land acquisition costs), which is $617,173 under budget.

The construction and site servicing budget approved by Council totalled $28,800,000. To date, $27,603,540 has been spent – 96% of the total.

Although the MLC opened to the public in May, there are a number of outstanding items that will require spending a forecast $579,000 from now into spring 2020.

These items include storm pond landscaping, toboggan hill re-grading, top-soil and seeding, lighting from East Boundary Road to the MLC, and trail development and lighting, along with disbursing contractor holdbacks.

The overall budget forecast reflects these items.

Total borrowing on the project is expected to be $21,143,903, which is $856,097 less than the overall borrowing bylaw approval of $22,020,000.

The cost of the MLC is being funded by two 20-year debentures through the Alberta Capital Finance Authority. The first $11 million debenture was secured in September 2018 at a rate of 3.209% and the second $6 million at 2.930% in March of this year, both with semi-annual payments.

In addition, since April 2018 Morinville has been using a $6 million temporary line of credit from Servus Credit Union for interim financing. Repayment is tied to the completion of construction.

Then the Town will need to secure a third and final debenture for a forecast $4,143,903.

“I want to thank our team for its attention to detail particularly in the financing and borrowing only what we need when we need it,” said Mayor Barry Turner. “It looks like it’s proving to result in a reduction in the borrowing that’s required and that’s going to save some money in the long-term.”

At the meeting, Council was also presented with an update on MLC donations and sponsorship, as well as one on operations.

Donations to date include $500,000 from Sturgeon County and there have been $622,500 in additional sponsorships.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is the sponsor of the Pembina Atrium, Landrex of the Landrex Arena, Atlas Premium Home Development has sponsored the Children’s Play Area and Clark Builders is a supporting sponsor of the facility.

MLC usage statistics showed that for the year to September 30 there were a total of 1,467 facility admissions, on the basis of drop-in, monthly and annual passes and registered programs.
Seventy per cent of those were Morinville residents, 14% from Sturgeon County, 6% other and 10% unknown.

Centre staff members have logged 160 incidents, the most frequent type being visitors expressing complaints and concerns – some 69. Other reported incidents include injury, 32; first aid, 20; hazard report, 17; missing/lost person, 5; theft/vandalism/property damage, 3; and 24 unspecified other.

“The information presented shows a very well-utilized facility,” Turner said. “It also demonstrates its value in the region,”

The council accepted the MLS update as information.