For Lou Maieron, the cost of hydrant installation is not just water under the bridge.
On Nov. 5, council encouraged staff to work with members of the public to resolve issues and promote education of water operations so as to avoid misinformation being circulated.
The item came about following the work on water hydrants in the Mountainview subdivision in Erin.
At that time, concerns were raised about the timing of the work and the potential impacts to residents as well as the safety of the water.
Now Maieron wanted information on the cost of the hydrant project.
Water Superintentdent estimated the cost at about $700 per hydrant – with the entire project being around $38,000.
Maieron said that if the hydrants had been installed at the same time as the water mains, the cost would have been substantially less.
Smedley said he wasn’t invoved with the project at that time.
Maieron asked Smedley to determine what the cost would have been.
Councillor John Brennan asked when the water mains were installed.
Councillor Barb Tocher suggested it would have been 16 years ago (prior to amalgamation).
She also believed those costs were not relavent to the current discussion.
Maieron maintained that if the hydrants were put in at the same time as the mains the work may only have cost $10,000.
“Everything would have been cheaper 16 years ago,” Tocher said.
“It irrelavent,” she added.
Brennan too, failed to see the point of Maieron’s question.
“The point I was trying to make was that putting work off did not save any money.”
