Nobleton sewers project receives first green light

YorkRegion.com
Feb. 26, 2015
Tim Kelly

When the topic’s Nobleton, councillors often spend more time talking about what’s under the ground than what’s on top of it.

But you can’t blame them, because sewers are a serious — and expensive — business.

Councillors on Monday debated the pros and cons of going ahead with the decision to approve design work on Phase 2 of the Nobleton Sewers project. Also included is contract work on Nobleview Drive.

The Ainley Group, with a bid of just under $500,000, won the contract to do the design work.

That was substantially higher than King Township staff estimated for the work in the 2015 capital budget of $226,000 and left a few on council concerned about the cost.

Mayor Steve Pellegrini set the cat among the pigeons by asking, “If we re-tender this, will it come back a little bit cheaper?”

The answer he received from manager of engineering Mike Cole was that it would be substantially the same price.

The $498,000 cost of the design work for Phase 2 in Nobleton also alarmed Schomberg Councillor Bill Cober.

“I was blown away by the cost. I expected it being half of that,” he said.

Treasurer Allan Evelyn told council the push was on to get design work done in 2015 for Phase 2 in Nobleton so that if the federal government, especially with an election looming in the fall, provided infrastructure grant money, the project would be “shovel ready”.

He also said it was important Phase 2 be lined up so that it was on the board as a capital project for 2016.

Asked to define what a “shovel-ready project” is, Evelyn and Cole suggested that, in the past, such projects were usually required to be finished by the end date of the terms of the grant period. The suggestion was that design work should be complete by the time any possible grant program was announced.

Given those answers, Nobleton Councillor David Boyd seemed relieved.

“I am feeling more comfortable with the design costs, that they are in line with what’s been done previously. We need to provide answers for the residents affected by Phase 2,” he said.

Cole assured everyone on council who raised concerns that Ainley has “a responsibility to do a good job and that quality control is ensured”.

In a later interview, Pellegrini said the design work, which can normally take up to a year for a project of this size, is expected to be done by the end of 2015.

He added that King Township residents who live outside the Phase 2 zone would not be on the hook for the design costs.

“We will capitalize the project as we are providing a direct benefit to the Phase 2 homeowners just like we did in King City and in Phase 1. We will borrow the money on an interim basis against our reserves and then pay back our reserves,” said Pellegrini.

He added it was important than Ainley get to work.

“We want to be ready if federal funding becomes available later this year,” he said.