Meeting in the Hart Tonight on Sewer Connection
Prince George, B.C. – Residents of Hart Highlands who are facing a huge bill for the installation of sewer service, will be meeting this evening with representatives from the City.
The residents have questions which they say have not been answered. Questions about what happened to money that was collected at the time of amalgamation, why wasn’t the project (estimated to cost $2.4 million dollars) put out to tender, why hasn’t the City secured grants to reduce the cost for this infrastructure?
The project was supposed to start on Berwick Drive yesterday, but construction equipment did not show up. What did show up was a neighbourhood protest, calling on the City for more answers. ( see previous story)
“The residents are the customer, and clearly the customer is not happy” says Councillor Murry Krause. He is hoping the meeting this evening will see the residents’ questions and concerns addressed.
Superintendent of Operations, Bill Gaal, noted there have been numerous notices to residents to keep them in the loop, “the level of concern has caught me a little off guard.”
But communication is a “delicate thing” says Councillor Frank Everitt, “obviously we’ve got a glitch in the communication”.
Hart Highlands resident Kevin Brown says he is looking forward to this evening’s session "It seems to me there is a willingness on Council and administration to get the neighbours the answers to the questions we've been raising."
One of the Councillors suggested neighbours reach out to each other and not carry on a neighbourhood battle over the issue, but Brown says there is no division among neighbours "There is absolutely nobody who is fighting neighbour to neighbour that I am aware of because everybody I've talked to say its time to get on with these projects in the Hart Highlands, the only questions at the end of the day are, how it's being paid for and how much."
Comments
I think this is one of the projects that the city is undertaking in house. Thus the city is only guessing at what it will cost. Unlike asking a contractor for a firm price based on all the information provided.
Contractor’s never go over budget? Okay then. Only guessing, okay then.
make it non-union,guaranteed to come in cheaper under budget yeah right heard all this before. weather delays, materials delays, engineering delays, beyond our controls delays, hidden costs overruns, shoddy work procedures, the list goes on and on it aint any cheaper!!!
If the contract is written up properly the Contractor can be held responsible for any cost overruns and also timeline penalties.
Unfortunately government does a poor job of writing up contracts. IE: Old Nechako bridge, South scales at Redrock and 4 lane headed south out of town. Taxpayers fleeced on all.
ice, I suppose your an expert in construction.
I suppose letting the city do it with no cost implication in mind is the best solution.
Will be interesting to see how many councillors make the meeting. Oh my, missing the legal beagle last night – there might be a quorum. LOL
Nothing wrong with getting tenders from union shops. Absolutely no need to get the city workers involved though; there is zero accountability with them.
Not much difference between union and non-union when it comes to pricing out a contract. The unionized workers bring a bit more skill on the average. Non union has marginally less costs. So at the end of the production costing, very similar.
Its really not the individual city workers fault, the difference is a lot less motivation or urgency required from the top down.
“Level of Concern caught me a bit off guard”, hmmmmm I guess he was hoping to pull the wool over the clients eye, like he did council.
Gaal has got to go. Why is he always surprised when people start questioning city hall?
Gaal mentioned in the past there has been no interest by private firms to do this type of work. Does it make it right he made no attempt to put out for bid?
Perhaps he would like to see a FOI done for the public and city hall can actually see how the neighbourhood tried to communicate with city hall….
If Wells was paying more attention to the meeting instead of chatting with the Beth James the process of council may have gone faster. I was appalled at the disrespect for council these two showed last night.
What I got from Krause was there was a lack of understanding from the residents of the area and they were only hearing what they hope to hear. Huh? Should be the other way around in regards to city council?
The comment from Stolz was Council has been looking after rural areas this year? That area of the Hart is not rural. Does he actually know what rural is?
” there is zero accountability with them. (city workers)
Yes, city workers should have gone to all these protesters (a very small minority)houses, opened their mail for them, and read out in very casual layman’s terms how this project was put to a vote among the citizens, etc, how the costs of redoing a septic system is a little more than hooking up to city services, how the city is asking for a long term payment plan from those wanting these services, etc.
Posted by: Howrd_B_Stern on June 10 2014 10:48 AM
” there is zero accountability with them. (city workers)
Yes, city workers should have gone to all these protesters (a very small minority)houses, opened their mail for them, and read out in very casual layman’s terms how this project was put to a vote among the citizens, etc, how the costs of redoing a septic system is a little more than hooking up to city services, how the city is asking for a long term payment plan from those wanting these services, etc.
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You may want to read the story before commenting.
Where is the meeting being held?????
Hart Highlands Elementary School – 7:00pm
Certainly hope that no one sends a water meter catalogue to the present city council for future ponderous thinking after being re-elected this November.
The city created a situation that created uncertainty in the value of these homes. It’s an open ended contract with no ceiling on it, was not tendered for a competitive bid, and is going to be done as a side job by the city crew when they don,t have other priorities to attend to.
Of course there will be massive cost over runs that will be added to the tax bill for decades to come. These properties will see there tax bill more than double.
Good deal for the rest of the city though as they have nothing in it, but get infrastructure they can tax and a city crew paid for over 6-months time.
I am fairly certain the residents of Killarny have been paying yearly taxes as if they already had been hooked up to city sewer system.
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