Alberton council delays lagoon project

After a lengthy discussion on how the Town of Alberton should handle delays in getting a sewage lagoon upgrade project started, it all came down to a simple math equation.

Council has approved a motion to wait for the spring before general contractor Curran and Briggs Ltd. can complete the work since the town is still awaiting environmental approval on part of the project.

With time running short to get the work started this year, the project’s engineer presented council with three options on how to proceed.

The first option was to have the $499,000 project completed in the spring of 2019, but with approval to invoice materials ordered in 2018, essentially to cover the material costs the company already has invested in the project.

Option Two has the work starting in mid-December or, actually completing the work with the use of a water-filled cofferdam at an additional cost of approximately $63,000 plus HST, and Option Three has the work completed in the spring with no payment for any materials ordered until then.

In providing the three options to council, Stantec indicated those options were also presented to Curran and Briggs and they were still awaiting the company’s response on the third option.

Councillors acknowledged the company has already ordered $143,000 worth of materials for the project, including a 22,000pound manhole.

With uncertainty about the use of a cofferdam (a device that dams the waterway from the work area), the additional cost and still no environmental approval, council steered away from the second option.

“We pay nothing and they complete the work in the spring, that right?” Coun. Blair Duggan shared his understanding of the third option.

Although Duggan expressed concern in leaving the company “on the hook for materials that they’ve billed for us,” the general consensus among councillors was that the town should not pay for materials now, just in case something happens that prevents the work from being completed next spring.

“What happens if we, the town, do not get the permits, or the engineering firm does not get the permits for next spring?” finance committee chair David Cahill asked. “So, what’s the difference between (options) one and three? We pay for it or we don’t pay for it, right?”

Mayor Michael Murphy nodded that that was his understanding.

A motion to go with Option Three, moved by Cahill and seconded by Coun. Rosetta Tremblay, that council accept the third option, received unanimous approval.