A Shuswap company was awarded a local infrastructure project despite submitting a proposal more than $300,000 over the District of Sicamous’ budget.
Salmon Arm’s Mounce Construction has been contracted to construct a lift station in Old Town Bay. Their bid for the project, $876,887, was the lowest of three received by the district. The other two came in well over $1 million.
The district’s budget for the project is $514,000. However, a staff memo from district operations manager Joe McCulloch refers to Mounce’s figure as a preliminary bid price, “with cost reductions to be negotiated.”
“They have committed, within their submission, to have the project completed by Dec. 15, 2017,” writes McCulloch. “The district has worked with the contractor on previous projects and has been satisfied with their quality of work, cost control and schedule delivery.”
McCulloch explained the lack of bids has to do with the large sums of government grant money recently distributed throughout the provinces, creating high demand for skilled labour.
“It’s not a job they need to bid on, it’s a job they want to bid on,” said McCulloch.
The lift station project itself is being funded from grant money related to wastewater treatment plant upgrades. It includes installation of a new lift station, water, as well as sanitary storm sewer, electrical and road works.
Lift station units had been purchased privately, by developers, for Old Town Bay and the industrial park before the 2007/08 financial crisis brought development to a standstill. The District of Sicamous later inherited what infrastructure was developed, including the lift stations, which have been in storage and since fallen out of warranty and into obsolescence. Now, the district is in the process constructing both. McCulloch said the lift stations are a necessary part of the district’s wastewater treatment system as a whole.