From the Portage Daily Graphic

At Monday night’s council meeting the mayor and council voted unanimously in favour of awarding the first two of four tender packages for the construction of the Portage Credit Union Centre.

The first tender package, which includes demolition, site preparation and piling, came in at nearly $2.1 million, $174,640 under budget. While the second, larger package, consisting of several tenders including the pre-engineered building and concrete, came in at more than $6.8 million and over budget by $181,830.

Mayor Ken Brennan said the $6,720 overage between the two tenders was not a concern, and will be paid for from a roughly $2.4 million contingency fund that was included into the $35.7 budgeted for the centre.

“The contingencies cover overages on tenders, change orders when we’re building it, or something that we forgot,” explained Mayor Ken Brennan after the meeting. “So up until tonight we’re still fine as far as money goes.”

The city’s awarding of the tenders is conditional on whether the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie approves the same two tender packages at their meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.