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Decision on flume coming very soon

Tender window closed Monday; City will now look at budget

Residents may have noticed some work being done beside Mark Creek in the area where phase two of the flume rehab will take place.

However, that work is underground pipe work that has to be done in any event, and is not specifically a part of the flume rehab. The money for it comes out of a different budget, says Mayor Don McCormick.

But a decision on the flume project for this year should be made very soon.

The window for tender documents closed yesterday, May 4, and the city will now look at them to determine whether the project can proceed this year with the money available.

McCormick has been adamant that the project will not proceed if it cannot be done with the available provincial/federal grant money and the city’s budgeted portion.

The Mayor says that because the City went back to the project designer’s (Aqua Tex) in January and asked them look at the original design and find efficiencies, tenders went out later than was ideal.

“May 4 is late in the season,” McCormick said. “A lot of contractors have work already lined up and we were concerned about the impact of that on costs in the tender.”

He says that if the tenders come back too high there will be no work on the flume this summer.

“In that case, we would re-tender early in 2016. It’s important that the tenders come back within a  variance we can deal with. If not, we will have to go back to the province and the feds and renegotiate the timeline.”