Prince George, B.C.- There will be a special meeting of  City Council today  to deal with two  matters.

One is the awarding of the  asphalt contract for 2016 and 2017.   Three bids had  been received, and Pittman Asphalt  is the preferred  company.

Pittman’s bid  of $6.13 million  was  $100 thousand dollars less than  AWA, and  about $800 thousand dollars less than the bid  submitted by Columbia Bitulithic.

The contract would be for two years. The second year of the contract  would only be altered to reflect  changes  in labour  costs.  Councillor Garth Frizzell says  making a decision on the awarding of the contract today could give the City  three extra weeks of  road  rehab time.

The other issue  is  a revised policy  on  permissive tax exemptions. The City has the  ability to  exempt  organizations from  having to pay property taxes,  and the new policy  clarifies language  making a better distinction  between  thrift stores which  do, or don’t operate for  profit.  Under the  new policy,  any commercial activity undertaken on the exempt property  cannot be in competition with for-profit businesses and the annual value of the exemption does not exceed the annual operating budget for the program or service .  The  new policy means  not for profit society’s such  as the Salvation Army,  would now have an opportunity to apply for a  permissive tax exemption.