Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Friday, July 20, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Council made a recommendation Monday to earmark $18,000 to help Mildred Hall school pave two basketball courts.

However, the amount is less than the $35,000 originally asked for by the school.

Coun. Dave McCann said $260,000 had already been allocated to the overhauling of the school's grounds, which was meant to include the basketball courts.

"This project is turning out to be over-budget, to put it bluntly," he said.

Coun. Lydia Bardak said the project was less over budgeted than it was "under-fundraised."

The money for the paving will come from the city's contingency fund, which, before the paving is approved, stands at $45,000 for the rest of the year.

Raising bus awareness

Some members of council took the public on a tour of a mysterious locale recently - Yellowknife's under-used bus system.

Coun. Paul Falvo, Lydia Bardak and Dave McCann took six Yellowknife residents on the tour of city buses, as they traversed the city.

"We want people to have more familiarity with transit," Falvo said.

"Maybe we can do these on a regular basis."

Reservoir expansion

A recommendation has been moved forward to upgrade Yellowknife's oldest pump house.

Pump House No.1, located on the shore of Great Slave Lake, was first built in 1948, and was upgraded several times in the 1960s and 80s.

The plan is to increase the size of the pump house's reservoir capacity, which city administrators said has not kept up with city growth.

City administrator Max Hall said the upgrades will cost $20 million over the next five years. He said the reservoirs are used to fight fires.

Coun. David Wind raised concerns that only one company, Nahanni Construction, had made an offer to do the current work at an estimated $3.37 million. He was also worried that tenders are "consistently" coming in higher than engineer's estimates. In this case, the estimate was for $2.5 million.

"There's no question that we need to do it," said Coun. Bob Brooks. He cited rising construction costs for a need to move forward quickly on the upgrade.

Closing Boffa Drive

During a municipal services committee meeting, council made recommendations to close a portion of Boffa Drive in Old Town.

The lane, which runs behind Johnson's Building Supplies in Old Town encroaches on private land.

Councillors did have concerns, however, that closing the lane would impede emergency access to the area.

"One of my primary concerns was access," said Wind. He also asked if pedestrian access could be maintained, something city administrators said was possible.