RM and city councils don’t put construction approvals on their agendas

By Shane Gibson, The Daily Graphic

The final two tender packages for the PCU Centre in Portage la Prairie will have to wait a little longer to be voted on by the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie — the tenders were not on the agenda at Tuesday’s council meeting for councillors’ approval.

Reeve Toby Trimble explained although the project manager Guenter Schaub of Tower Engineering has gotten all tenders back, he is still working out the details of the packages.

“We’ve met with Guenter and Dominion Construction, and they are still working with individual contractors on some of the quotes,” he explained after the meeting.

Although Trimble couldn’t say whether the tenders would be on the agenda at the RM’s next council meeting, scheduled for Oct. 28, he did say the wait will not increase the costs or hold up the project.

“What’s being done now is being covered by tenders 1 and 2,” he said.

But just because the last two tenders weren’t on the agenda at the Oct. 14 meeting, didn’t mean the contentious issue wasn’t brought up during the council meeting Tuesday.

Bob Murray, who has appeared as a delegation before the RM council several times this year, again addressed councillors with his concerns about the RM’s $8-million commitment to the multiplex project.

The Oakville-area resident told council he doesn’t feel it’s fair the RM put $200,000 of taxpayer money into its reserve last year for the project, and will put another $500,000 in this year and next year.

“So our taxes are up 6.7 per cent in 2008 to fund the multiplex that hasn’t even been built yet,” he said to council. “You’re taxing us in advance.”

After the meeting, the reeve defended the RM’s taxing structure, saying council has put money into reserves for things like the rural water project in the past, and did it again to reduce the amount the municipality would have to borrow for the project and save some money on interest.