The town will continue to contract out grass cutting at local parks, cemeteries and other municipality property, despite some objections and concerns from individual council members.
At the Dec. 3 meeting, council awarded the tender for 2014 and 2015 grass cutting to Minto-based Michele’s Mowing & More at a rate of $3,327 plus HST per cut (for all properties covered by the tender).
The company submitted the second lowest of four bids in terms of dollars. However, in a report at the Dec. 3 meeting, public works director Brian Hansen and recreation services manager Matt Lubbers, noted staff believe the lowest bidder, SM Grounds, “would concur this contact is too large for his operation as it currently stands.”
The report states the cost difference in the price per cut between the two companies submissions was $267. However, the rate per hour for additional work and per extra cut of diamonds or pitches when needed submitted by Michele’s Mowing & More was $85 lower than SM Grounds.
Lubbers estimated a total of 20 cuts would be required per season.
Town cemeteries in Clifford, Harriston and Palmerston have been cut by Culp’s Lawn Care in 2012 and 2013 at a cost of $35,000 per year. Based on 20 cuts per year, Michele’s Mowing & More would charge the town $28,725 to complete this work, the report notes.
“Operational expenses alone to do the same work in house have been calculated by staff at $50,350. This includes three students cutting the cemeteries at least once weekly from mid-May to Sept. 1. This amount does not include start-up capital expenses for vehicles, trailers, mowers and trimmers, or cutting before and after the time period students are typically available,” the report explains.
Deputy mayor Terry Fisk said he felt the work could be done by a single student, suggesting it should take less than a day to cut each cemetery. However, Hansen advised council it currently takes two days to cut the Harriston cemetery alone.
CAO Bill White said he was also surprised to learn how long it took to cut the grass at each cemetery, but noted “there’s some pretty fine cutting,” involved in cutting and trimming between headstones.
“This is a passion of mine as everybody knows and when I break down the $53,000 that works out to approximately $16,000 per student,” said councillor Ron Faulkner. However Hansen explained the figure also includes machine time and other operational costs, not just wages.
“In my exploring of the different cemeteries and how they were done … I still believe our cemeteries aren’t kept as well as when we were doing it ourselves and I think it’s something I would like to research more,” stated Faulkner, adding he would have preferred to see the contract let for only one year, rather than two.
“I still think we should pursue a different option for our cemeteries,” Faulkner stated.
White said when he first started working for the town “we did get the odd complaint.” However, he noted “we haven’t had too many in the last two years – but it’s something you have to keep on top of.”
Councilllor Ron Elliott asked if the contractor would be hiring local students and Hansen replied that the company does hire students.
“My thought was it would be great for our community to do this because we could hire summer staff, but in fact they will probably be hiring summer staff to do the job too. That helps me feel better about getting the opportunity for our local students to have a job for the summer,” said Elliott.
Council approved the recommendation to award the contract to Michelle’s Mowing & More, with only Faulkner opposed.
