WEYBURN – The City utility project to rebuild lift station 3 had bids come in from contractors that were more than the amount budgeted by the City to cover it.
A tender was posted by the City with a budget of $2.5 million from the City’s utility fund, and with two bids received, the lowest bid was $3,135,040 from TransCanada Contracting, about $635,000 over the budget.
The other bid came from Westridge, in the amount of $3,147,000.
The City entered negotiations with TransCanada Contracting, and a revised bid of $2,796,802 was received.
The engineering firm that handled the tender bid process, KGS Group, noted that over the past two to six months prices have gone up by 15 to 40 per cent for municipal infrastructure equipment and supplies.
The price increases were due to supply chain issues and the increase in municipal projects happening due to the backlog of projects that weren’t done during the COVID pandemic.
The revised bid was approved by city council, with the note that as the project won’t be completed until 2023, the overage amount will be covered by the utility budget for next year.
Mayor Marcel Roy noted he recently attended a Mayors Caucus meeting in Prince Albert, and said, “This is only going to get worse for us. They don’t know where it’s going to go from here, so we’re very lucky our administration did what they could to negotiate a better price.”
Engineer Jennifer Wilkinson noted in the negotiations, they were able to take out some items, such as the demolition of the existing lift station, which they should be able to do in-house.
• In other council business, council was informed that the next step in tax enforcement is now underway. The list of properties that still have an outstanding tax bill was provided, and the next step is to send a letter to the Provincial Mediation Board requesting consent of title.
Once the board is contacted, they will attempt to contact the property owner to make payment arrangements, and if they are unable to reach the owner or they fail to make any payments of the outstanding taxes, the board will then grant consent of title to the City.
The list being submitted to the board has 26 properties, with the outstanding taxes owing totaling $57,840.
