A 17 per cent jump in a gravel crushing contract has Woodlands County debating how they budget things in the future.
At Woodland County’s Feb. 2 meeting, council awarded the contract for the 2022 CN Pit aggregate crushing tender to Associated Aggregate. Normally, such a contract would not need council approval. But since Associated Aggregate’s bid was $176,000 over the budgeted amount, County council had to approve the overage.
Associated Aggregate had the lowest bid, at $926,750.
Councillor Peter Kulkein remarked, it was one of the biggest jumps he had ever seen.
Councillor Bruce Prestidge asked how administration came up with the originally budgeted amount of $750,000. Administration responded that it was based on the previous crushing contract the County handed out, as it was from a similar pit for a similar amount of gravel.
Prestidge then suggested administration should start getting some quotes as part of the budgeting process, so nothing would go this much over budget again.
“The way inflation is going and the way the economy is, you just never know what the quotes are going to come in at,” said Prestidge.
Councillor David Kusch wanted to know how County road maintenance would be affected if they asked the contractor to crush less gravel to bring it down to budget.
Administration replied the effect would be minimal. As Administration explained, the typical contract is for three years’ worth of gravel, with some excess at the end. Asking the contractor to crush less would result in less excess.
Council’s main concern was where the extra $176,000 was going to come from. Administration was confident that when you factor in other things like some delayed capital projects, the money can be found in the existing budget without having to raise taxes.
Councillor Kulkein did decide to vote to award the contract, given this has to do with the County’s roads.
“The roads are of the upmost importance, both for the reasons of keeping them up and keeping them serviced to what we have decided our service level will be,” said Kulkein.
Once the contract was awarded, Mayor John Burrows then made the motion that administration should review the budget, and highlight any other items that might go over budget because of inflation.
“I think we have to be prepared for this, because this is coming across the board,” said Burrows.
Council will also be reviewing Councillor Prestidge’s recommendation that, in the future, council should get two or three quotes on projects as part of the budgeting process.
