The town has released a report that reveals the details behind Erin council’s decision to hire an engineering firm for its wastewater environmental assessment (EA).
After a lengthy closed meeting on March 1, council chose Ainley Group for the EA process, at a cost of $883,770 excluding HST.
Erin has been progressing with the selection of a consulting engineering firm for the EA since October 2015, when the municipality requested letters of interest.
The town received six letters from: Ainley Group, XCG Consulting Limited, Aecom Canada Ltd, J.L. Richards and Associates Limited, GSS Engineering Consultants Ltd, and Greenland International Consulting Ltd. The later two firms were not short-listed for the job.
Triton Engineering explained in a report the four short-listed firms submitted proposals in January and they were scored and reviewed by officials from Triton, Credit Valley Conservation, Wellington County planning, and the town of Erin.
The firms were assessed on a number of criteria including understanding of the project, background, past experience, knowledge of the existing infrastructure and proposed project schedule.
Ainley Group was ranked first due to its “high financial proposal score;” its total cost was significantly lower than the other three firms, which submitted bids ranging from just over $1 million to almost $1.5 million.
The Triton report noted Ainley Group has offered opportunities to reduce fees by $20,000 to $160,000 from the total proposed cost of $884,000. Erin council agreed to have Triton and town officials evaluate these opportunities.
Erin has budgeted $600,000 split over three years (2015 to 2017) for the EA. Mayor Allan Alls said he expects the EA to be completed in two years.
Recently the town also received a $175,000 grant toward the project from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
