A Milton firm has been awarded the contract for replacement of the Gordonville Bridge in Wellington North.
At the March 29 meeting, Wellington County council approved a roads committee decision to award the contract to MTM-2 Contracting Inc. The company submitted the lowest of eight tenders, at $1,905,800, excluding GST. Tender prices ran as high as $3,335,376.
The bridge is located on Wellington Road 14, approximately 8.5 kilometres north of Highway 6. The work includes the complete removal of the current bridge including the pier, abutments and all footings, and all associated grading and roadwork.
The total project cost, including professional fees of about $530,000 and a $114,000 contingency fund, is estimated at about $2.6 million, with about $400,000 to be drawn from tax levy funds and $2.2 million from the county’s federal gas tax reserve.
Short story contest
The Wellington County Library system recently received a donation from the estate of the late Frederick Hardy Robins in the amount of $15,000.
The March report from chief librarian Murray McCabe indicates the annual interest earned on this money will be used as prize money for an annual short story contest for youth. The details of this program will be worked out in the coming year.
Robins was an active member of the community and at one time was a member of the Fergus Library Board, the report notes.
Garage project
Completion of the county’s new Drayton public works garage is slated for the end of August.
A roads committee report presented at the March 29 Wellington County council meeting indicates work still to be completed includes:
– rough site grading;
– installation of a pump house and pre-engineered building: and
– masonry and structural steel installation.
The building will be located on Sideroad 16 at the Township of Mapleton administration centre property.
FCM endorsement
Wellington County council has once again endorsed councillor George Bridge to stand for election to the national board of directors for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
Council passed a resolution at the March 29 meeting authorizing Bridge to stand for election to the FCN board and/or to serve as a committee member for 2018-19.
Bridge has been a member of FCM’s executive since 2016 and was appointed vice-chair of the federation’s municipal finance and intergovernmental arrangements committee in 2017.
Bridge noted FCM lobbied successfully for implementation and increases to the municipal share of the federal gas tax, which has made budgeting easier for municipalities.
“We, on a county-wide basis, get $5.2 million, that’s $52 million over the last 10 years. I know personally at our (lower tier) level, without that we couldn’t survive and I know at the county it’s really allowed us to do a lot of our infrastructure build-outs.”
Bridge said FCM’s future plans include pushing for more sustainable, as opposed to application-based, funding for municipalities.
