An expansion of the Sister Kennedy Centre (also referred to as the Fort Frances Senior Centre) will proceed.

The town received two bids for the work that came in well over the anticipated budget.

One from Tom Jones and Sons from Thunder Bay is $326 thousand over budget, while the other from local contractor Ed Kaun and Sons is $350 thousand over the expected cost.

Administration suggested a redesign of the project to find savings and re-tendering in the future.

During Monday’s Fort Frances council meeting, Councillor Mike Behan didn’t feel convinced that was the best way to go.

“If we re-tender, trying to bring it down to more close to what we budgeted, are we going to get a product that nobody likes or doesn’t really fill our needs in the future as Mr. Rob (Operations and Facilities Manager Travis Rob) pointed out? I’m not sure that re-tendering is going to save us a lot of money down the road,” says Rob.

Mayor Andrew Hallikas agrees, feeling the town needs to move forward with the project.

“This is a need. I don’t think it’s necessarily a want. I think our community needs services for seniors, so I would be in favour of going forward with the present design and looking to get money out of reserve funds,” says Hallikas.

Council voted to accept the lowest bid and cover any shortfall using reserves.

They also agreed to continue seeking additional funding sources.

The expansion calls for added 30′ by 60 ‘ addition that will contain a new pool room, card room and meeting room.

The existing meeting would be converted into an exercise room.

The work would likely start next spring.