ERIN – Council here has awarded two more contracts for the much-anticipated town wastewater treatment plant, totalling over $52 million for the combined projects.
In a July 7 meeting, director of infrastructure services Nick Colucci presented council with two separate contracts for the town’s linear work and a sewage pumping station.
For the linear work, council directed staff to enter a contract with Nabolsy Contracting Inc. in the amount of $40,995,763, excluding HST.
In May, council approved a list of pre-qualified micro-tunnelling contractors for the town’s linear work.
“So this bid was open to any contractor but the requirement was they had to use one of the five approved micro-tunnelling contractors,” Colucci explained.
The bid from Nabolsy Contracting Inc., which has completed work for the town in the past, was found to meet all the tender requirements, including using one of the pre-qualified tunnelling contractors, Ward and Burke Microtunnelling.
“This is sort of a momentous event as far as this council’s concerned,” said Mayor Allan Alls. “It’s been a long time here … and I’m glad to see the end of this to some degree.”
Sewage pumping contract awarded
Council also directed staff to enter a contract with Bennett Mechanical Installations Ltd. in the amount of $11,500,000, excluding HST, for the town’s sewage pumping station, set to be located at Lions Club Park in Erin.
As with the linear works contract, in May council approved tendering the contract for the pumping station with a list of approved pre-qualified general contractors.
The tender was posted on May 31 with a requirement that only the approved pre-qualified general contractors were able to bid.
One of the pre-qualified bidders, Bennett Mechanical Installation Ltd., was found to meet all the tender requirements, the report to council noted.
“They are one of the pre-qualified contractors, so they are able to complete this work,” Colucci explained.
“They were also pre-qualified for the wastewater plant so they’re a company that can do the work and they’re local.” He noted the updated engineer’s estimate for the work was roughly $15 million so the bid came in below what was anticipated.
Referencing the report, councillor Michael Robins said, “I just get my knickers in a twist when I see … ‘no financial implications’ [written in the report] on the amount … there are significant financial implications of all of these.”
He noted that between the costs of the main trunk lines and the wastewater plant itself, there’s a fairly significant financial implication, especially with cost increases and inflation.
“To declare that there is no financial implication kind of makes me get my knickers in a twist, but I can live with it,” he said.
Alls said while he understood Robins’ point, there won’t be a direct financial impact for current taxpayers as it will be paid for by the development community, which he said the town will be meeting with.
Notice of motion
Robins later put forward a notice of motion requesting that staff present a report to council outlining:
- current plans to provide wastewater services to existing households, including updated best estimates for timelines and costs; and
- updated environmental risks relating to aging septic systems and provide plans to address these risks in the events of delays.
“Now that we have awarded all parts of the wastewater project and we have an idea of the costing for the segments one to four, we’re working on estimates now for the local costs,” Colucci said in response to the motion.
Colucci said staff will work on estimates and bring a report back to council in a subsequent meeting, noting they’ll also look to include information on the risk of aging septic tanks.
Robins said he’s not expecting anything to be exact, but council should be providing updates to the community from time to time so there’s more current information available.
“I just think that we need to share the information with folks so that they can rationally understand what might be coming and with the appropriate caveats around additional funding from different levels of government,” he said.
“So I’m looking for updated information and it’s not just a one-time thing but every once in a while I think we should revisit this because it could take many, many years and people need to be updated.”
