A Wellington North councillor is critical of council’s choice of a new engineering firm to undertake work on the Arthur sewage treatment plant in a bid to extend its life.
Councillor Dan Yake told council at its Sept. 24 meeting that its choice to hire XCG instead of long-time firm Triton Engineering will cost the municipality more.
Council had issued requests for proposals (RFPs) earlier this year over concerns Triton was not moving fast enough with studies needed to assess the condition of the plant. The proposals saw four firms submit bids with XCG being chosen in a 4-1 vote. The firm was affirmed in a similar vote at the council meeting Monday evening.
The proposal process was overseen by Steve Burns of BM Ross Engineering who concluded Triton and XCG were the top picks with bids of $116,225 and $124,399 respectively. Council preference for XCG resulted in the 4-1 vote.
“I have not supported this process since it started approximately one year ago,” Yake told council. “The previous council authorized Triton Engineering to investigate the best approach to address the lack of capacity at the Arthur sewage plant. The project included three steps, river water quality monitoring program, Conestoga river assimilative capacity study and a class environmental assessment.”
“Triton Engineering originally designed the Arthur plant and using their historical knowledge of the system, has been working towards resolving the Arthur sewage capacity issue. This has included discussions with MOE (ministry of the environment), GRCA (Grand River Conservation Authority), stress test of the plant, river monitoring and experimenting with operational changes at the plant, but they were never directed by council to complete the required EA (environmental assessment) process,” Yake said. “If council had not interfered and given proper direction the EA would probably be done, instead we are at least 14 months from completion (two years lost).”
“Despite assurances by staff and a third party engineering firm that Triton was doing what had to be done, council wanted a second opinion and advertised for RFPs, but when Triton was the only firm to respond, council chose to advertise again and contact firms directly to get other proposals,” Yake said of the recent RFP procedure. “Those RFPs were evaluated by the third party firm who confirmed Triton and XCG had the best proposals, but council then allowed XCG to adjust their quote.”
Yake maintains the process has cost considerable money even though he did not release any costs.
“Council constantly states fiscal restraint is important, yet council has not listened to staff or a third party confirmation that Triton was doing what was needed to be done and we have spent thousands of dollars on third party evaluations, advertising and staff time,” he said. “Triton has always done a good job for the village of Arthur and Wellington North, completed grant applications that got the township over $20 million and donated $25,000 to township projects that Triton was not involved in. Their track record speaks for itself and considering the two proposals are virtually equal, Triton’s past experience and council’s want of fiscal restraint, makes Triton the obvious choice to complete this project.”
“In my opinion this process has been flawed from the start, wasted a lot of time, township resources, delayed the project, wasted taxpayers’ money and served to compromise the way Wellington North is perceived to do business.”
Council disagreed and will hire XCG.
