GUELPH – Improvements are coming to the Elora waste facility site, but not without a significant impact to the county’s 2025 budget.
At its last regular meeting of 2024 on Nov. 28, Wellington County council approved awarding the tender for improvements to the Elora waste transfer station to Mississauga-based Verly Construction Group Inc. for $2.89 million.
While this amount is less than bids for an earlier tender council opted to cancel in June, it is still much higher than original cost estimates for the project.
“The county will have to debt finance the funding adjustment required to move forward with this work,” stated a staff report.
In June, staff recommended awarding the project to Roubos Farm Service Ltd. of Moorefield, at a total tendered amount of nearly $3.4 million, and transferring funds originally set aside for improvements to the Rothsay waste facility toward the Elora project.
But the recommendation was defeated, with council instead suggesting a deferral and retendering the project, possibly with a reduced scope.
According to the report, the design for the site was revised by reducing the height of a portion of the bin wall by 0.6 metres.
The scope of the work now includes construction of a new scale house, household hazardous waste building, and other site improvements, including installation of a new drop-off bin modular retaining wall, cast-in-place retaining walls, water service and sanitary service.
Verly Construction Group’s bid of $2,890,507 was the lowest of three submissions received on Nov. 1. Roubos Farm Service had the second lowest total bid price at $3.17 million.
“Additional professional fees for contract administration, inspection and testing plus the price of two weigh scales are included in the financial summary,” the report stated.
That financial summary showed a total “bid to award” cost of $3.97 million, including “provisional items,” weigh scales to be awarded under a separate bid, professional fees, contingency and HST.
During discussion, councillor Earl Campbell pointed out this amount is only $70,000 less than the “bid to award” amount of $4.04 million that council rejected in June.
“We haven’t accomplished anything with this exercise,” Campbell said.
Council discussion also included some debate about what might happen if the Elora transfer station were to be closed, with councillor Michael Dehn suggesting closing the facility to see if the closure results in a change in behaviour.
“Would people actually put their garbage out on the street if they didn’t have the convenience of dropping it off at Elora?” he wondered.
But council was told the facility is the busiest in the county by far, serving 1,600 people per week in three days, compared to the approximately 400 that Riverstown sees in five days.
Councillor Shawn Watters, also mayor of Centre Wellington, said he has wondered in the past about promoting Belwood as an alternative to Elora because it’s a more accessible location for Erin, but he said staff did not support the idea of closing the Elora facility.
“We asked staff: What would happen if we closed Elora? And they said ‘we can’t,’” Watters said.
He acknowledged Campbell’s point about the high financial cost, but said practicality must also be considered.
“At the end of the day, sometimes the cost is what the cost is, and we have to accommodate the service within our community,” Watters said.
The majority of council voted in favour of awarding the project to Verly Construction.
According to the staff report, the county will have to issue $685,000 in tax-supported debt, anticipated to be amortized over 10 years, as well as an additional $835,000 in development-charge-supported debt to be amortized over 15 years.
“The tax-supported debt is estimated to have an annual cost of approximately $83,400 (starting in 2026-27)” and the DC-supported debt is expected to cost $148,300 annually, to be recovered by development charges, the report stated.
The debt, principal and interest charges, and offsetting development charges required to finance the project are to be added to the county’s 2025 budget and 10-year capital plan.
