A landscaping proposal for the Hillsburgh parkette may go to seed until councillors here make a decision.
On June 6 (as part of the extended June 5 meeting), councillors reviewed a landscaping proposal offered by Exterior Expressions, of Hillsburgh.
In it, Doris Calder outlined her hourly rate and the potential costs for garden maintenance to the main street parkette in Hillsburgh.
The proposals were divided into the initial cleanup, additional costs for establishing plants, and regular maintenance.
Calder said after an initial cleaning, she would recommend which plants should be replaced. She said that if the garden did not require maintenance during a specific visit, there would be no charge to the municipality.
But in an initial review of costs, councillor Josie Wintersinger said she felt the they are a bit high. She was concerned only one business made a proposal, and asked if the work was advertised.
Councillor Barb Tocher said the original request came from the let’s get Hillsburgh growing committee, and the idea was to get an estimate from the business that supplies a similar service at the Erin town office.
Tocher said the intent was to obtain a ballpark idea of the cost to do the work.
Wintersinger asked if the Hillsburgh gardening group was approached.
Tocher said they were not.
She said there is a member of the garden club on the committee and the issue is club members are getting older and cannot keep up with work at the park.
Mayor Lou Maieron wondered if the work should be posted on the town’s website, advertised in a Newspaper, or with community groups.
Wintersinger agreed that other groups should be offered the chance to bid.
Clerk Kathryn Ironmonger had questions about asking a person to provide estimates for a job, then having council choose to advertise it.
Is that fair, she asked.
Tocher said it could be considered a slap in the face for a qualified business operator being asked to give a price and then offer the work to a non-profit group that does not do it for a living.
Wintersinger said that is not the intent of her comments.
Tocher said the proposal was not brought with the intent the business owner would automatically get the job, but to give council an idea of how much it would cost to clean up the parkette garden.
She recommended council proceed because the garden “is a mess” and needs work as soon as possible.
Maieron suggested council should have sought an estimate first..
“That’s what this is,” Tocher said.
Wintersinger said the letter refers to this as a “quote.”
Maieron said an initial advertisement looking for expressions of interest might have covered this off.
While the resolution was to accept the quote, council rejected it.
Councillor John Brennan said it may have been made clear in the first place that council was looking for a ballpark figure. He was reluctant to suggest there be no competition for this.
Councillor Deb Callaghan agreed. “Going with this quote, without looking at any thing else is wrong.”
Maieron wondered if the work could be done by part-time summer students with the recreation department.
Tocher said, “I would respectfully suggest [most] summer students know nothing about gardening. To do it properly you need to know the plants that are there and what is being replanted.”
Wintersinger added, “I certainly would not put students there unless there was supervision as to what they were doing.”
She suggested the possibility of someone from the garden club overseeing the students.
Council opposed accepting the proposal as a quote.
Tocher then suggested the letter be forwarded to the committee to give members an idea how much the project might cost – so they could consider including it in the budget.
Councillors agreed the work needs to be done.
Tocher added, “It was the committee that wanted the price. I’m not sure why [the letter] ended up here in the first place.”
Wintersinger recommended it go back to the committee and await a reply on how to deal with this.
Maieron agreed.
“It’s June and we want to get on with this so the park looks good,” he said.
