Good fences make good neighbours, famously, but there's something to be said for cheap fences too, evidently.
A split West Vancouver council voted to go ahead with a permanent safety fence along the south side of the West Vancouver Community Centre’s great lawn – despite the cost coming in at almost double what the district had budgeted.
The district put the contract out to tender late last year, but when the bidding period ended, only one contractor was interested in the job and the price tag was $85,000. Council only budgeted $45,000.
Some on council thought they should take another stab at finding someone who would do the work cheaper, especially as COVID-19 has raised economic uncertainty for so many businesses.
“I think the world has changed since this bid was opened and closed and I do think there would be more people competing because there are just less projects happening right now,” said Coun. Craig Cameron.
According to district staff, re-opening the bidding process would be an option, but it would likely delay the work by another six weeks and might not result in any cheaper bids.
“In this case, it definitely is a smaller marketplace,” said Nina Leemhuis, chief administrative officer. “The rules around the COVID crisis and the conditions that they need to work under aren’t impacting construction sites.”
Coun. Peter Lambur suggested council seek out a cheaper fence sometime down the road.
“There are more utilitarian designs if we needed a permanent solution that we could consider at a later date and use temporary fencing in the meantime,” he said.
Mayor Mary-Ann Booth however urged council to just get on with it.
“I’ll make one final plea here. This original report came to council in February of last year. We’ve been talking about safety fencing for over a year. It is needed on that lawn. It doesn’t matter if there are 50 people or one child running after a ball,” she said. “We’re talking about very low numbers here and the additional work of putting temporary fencing up, bringing this back and going out to retender for what is in essence, $40,000, I think is not a good use of taxpayer dollars.”
The majority on council sided with Booth.
Cameron, Lambur and Coun. Sharon Thompson voted against going ahead.
