Rossland city council gave the city manager the go-ahead to negotiate with the contractors for the winning bid.
The tenure process had to be prolonged from its initial date because all of the bids came in over budget. Prior to Monday’s regular meeting, council spent almost two hours in-camera discussing the options.
When the vote came to the regular meeting, there was no discussion and the motion was carried.
Staff gave council four suggestions as to what to do, with council going with the first: “Council delegates to the City Manager to award the Columbia and Washington Streets project tender subject to successful negotiations and agreement with the successful bidder. The negotiated tender project cost and the summary of the result be placed on the next Council meeting for public information.”
The three bids that were opened on April 3 were (prices excluding HST):
Copcan Contracting with $ 6,021,200
LB Chapman Construction Ltd. with $10,601,143
Maglio Installations ltd. $6,657,330
Councils options are to either raise taxes to cover the project and/or get rid of all of the unnecessary things involved with the project, as all three bids were at least $1 million over ISL’s initial estimates of $5 million for phase one of the project, Columbia Avenue and Washington Street.
The repaving and repiping of the sewer and water lines was deemed necessary by council, as the Ministry of Transportation will be paving Columbia Avenue and the rest of Highway 3b this summer.