CENTRE WELLINGTON – Fergus’ wastewater treatment plant’s secondary digester roof will be getting replaced after council approved moving forward with a proposal originally defeated in August.
On Monday, the committee of the whole was presented with a more thorough report on why staff recommended a floating roof over other less expensive options.
This option was previously defeated at an August council meeting in a tie vote as some councillors felt they weren’t being presented with enough information on a high-value capital project.
The report outlined in detail how staff and consultants determined a stainless steel floating roof was the highest ranking option in terms of technical, operations and economics.
Councillor Bob Foster, who was critical of the lack of information previously and voted opposed in August, was thankful to get a detailed report.
“This was exactly what I was looking for back in August,” Foster said.
“I’m thankful that we finally do, I remain troubled that we were put in the position to make a decision without complete information.”
Councillor Kirk McElwain, who was also opposed, agreed with Foster that this was necessary to make an informed decision.
However, he noted the cost of the project is going up to $2.5 million from $2.35 million with only a month delay.
Treasurer Dan Wilson said this is to account for going through another procurement process and to account for any inflation impacts by delaying the project to 2021.
McElwain was confused as to why the project was being delayed and couldn’t move forward with the original proposal.
“It was only a one month delay,” McElwain said. “I’m still questioning why we had to go through the procurement process again and consider new prices for 2021.”
Wilson responded that the direction was to not award this proposal but it is technically still open at the same price.
He explained that from a procedural standpoint, staff would need to be explicitly directed to award the previously defeated proposal.
Council mostly felt that this project needed to go forward as soon as possible to keep the cost the same. They directed the clerk to draft a motion to reflect this.
The motion to award the contract was approved with Foster and councillor Stephen Kitras opposed.
