Town of Stettler staff will soon have more equipment to make their environment safer while working in trenches as town councillors voted to purchase a safety shoring system for $36,464 at its meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
The town had set aside $45,000 in its 2016 capital budget for the purchase, town CAO Greg Switenky told councillors, though the bids on the tender came in well below that amount.
Two companies bid on the tender; Mountainview Systems with its bid of $36,464, and Benchmark Site Services with its bid of $33,855.
Though Benchmark came in roughly $3,000 cheaper than Mountainview, they weren't able to provide the exact type of Build a Box safety system as outlined in the original request for proposal, Melissa Robbins, the town's director of operational services, told councillors.
"Build a Box is the industry leader," she told council. The patented system is quick to set up and is very flexible, meaning it can be adapted to work in tight quarters – an opportunity provided to the town's staff by the many narrow alleyways.
As Mountainview could supply the requested system, Robbins recommended council choose the higher bid – which they did, unanimously.
Committee of the Whole recommendations approvedFour recommendations came from the Committee of the Whole meeting held on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and were approved by council.
The first of the four involved the year-long examination of Stettler's school zones, which were being observed for speeding and other driving patterns that may cause concern. In the end, the results supported leaving the zones on 48, 49 and 50 avenues as-is.
"The school zone limits currently exceed the provincial recommended guidelines, and based on the traffic data collected, the average speeds approaching the zones are 40-44 km/h," the recommendation read.
The second recommendation suggested that the tender for the Stettler Recreation Centre (SRC) Phase 2 – ice plant replacement engineering and design, be awarded to Williams Engineering Canada at the cost of $69,200. The funding will come from the intermunicipal collaboration part of the Alberta Community Partnership Grant grant and the town's 2016 capital budget.
The current ice plant is continuing to chug along, but it is becoming increasingly aged and difficult to maintain. The arena's dual rinks requires a specialized solution to replace the ice plant.
The third recommendation also involved the SRC, in the blue rink's roof. Earlier this year, the town investigated the possibility of installing solar panels on the arena roof but discovered that the roof was a bare minimum installment, designed to handle its own weight, that of snow, and limited equipment. The cost of the panels would be too much.
Councillor Al Campbell, at the committee meeting, put forward the motion that an engineered structural study of the roof, especially that of the blue rink, be complete to determine the roof's condition. Further, the report would look at its weight bearing load capacity for future projects, retrofits, modifications or additions to the SRC. Money for the study will come from the intermunicipal collaboration component of the Alberta Community Partnership Grant and the town's 2016 budget.
The final item coming from the committee was that Stettler reject the Habitat for Humanity (HoH) project, presented earlier this year.
While Councillor Darcy Bachman, who moved the motion at the committee meeting, said that HoH is a commendable project, the feeling was that directing the town's money into such an endeavour would not be the best use of the town's funds. Other comments made at the meeting indicated that while there is a need for affordable housing in the community, it needs to be multiple-unit buildings rather than single unit buildings.
All four items were unanimously approved at the council meeting.
Lagoon updatesWork continues to restore the town's wastewater lagoon cells five and six, after a leak was discovered this past January. Follow-up investigation revealed the two cells' clay linings were in bad shape, and council was forced to cut some of its projects for 2016 in order to have the money to make the repairs.
However, the rehabilitation of the two cells meet the criteria of the Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership Grant, which Robbins suggested the town apply for to help offset the million-dollar-plus cost of the project. In 2010-11, the town received funding from this fund to build the new storage cell at the lagoon.
"The application is being submitted to cover the desludging and complete restoration of the lagoon walls of cells five and six, including engineering and geotechnical testing at a total project cost of $2,012,403.94," the memo provided by Robbins explained.
If successful, the funding would cover about 44 per cent of the cost of the project.
Council voted to approve the application.