Members of Estevan city council approved several tenders for the public works division during the March 26 meeting
A 2018 Freightliner M2-106 tandem gravel truck will be purchased from Warner Industries in Regina for $134,260.18. Warner Industries had the lowest bid, and the truck met the city’s criteria and specifications.
Norm Mack, the manager for public works’ roads and drainage division, said the new tandem truck will replace a 1999 unit that has been facing some repair costs. Mack noted the tandem trucks play an important role in public works.
Also, two 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 four-door crew cab trucks will be purchased for $76,242.18 before taxes. It was not the lowest bid, but met the specifications, while the lowest bid did not. The trucks will replace two aging units in the fleet.
A 20-foot High Boy flat deck trailer will be purchased from TK Trailer Sales Ltd. in Manor for $11,139.66. The bid was the lowest and met all specifications. The trailer is needed to enable a forklift to load, offload and use a trailer to haul materials such as pipe, grader blades, hydrants and other materials to job sites.
The city currently does not have such a trailer to haul materials to various work sites.
Finally, the dust control tender was awarded to Fort Distributors for 31 cents per litre, including delivery and application. The estimate cost needed for this year is $102,300. It was not the lowest bid, but the other bid substituted magnesium chloride with calcium chloride and did not meet specifications.
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The Town of Stoughton has joined the municipalities that support the decommissioning of the Civic Auditorium. In a letter similar to the one sent by the Town of Lampman and the Rural Municipality of Browning earlier in March, Town of Stoughton administrator Chris Miskolczi noted that communities of similar size to Estevan have two arenas, and there are communities in close proximity to Estevan that have ice arenas and ice time for Estevan residents to utilize.
The letter also noted that many rural communities supported Estevan’s bids for grants for the construction of Affinity Place, with the understanding that Affinity would replace the Civic Auditorium.
Coun. Trevor Knibbs wanted to know when some of these rinks previously had inspections, similar to the ones carried out on the Civic last year, because he has heard concerns about the condition of those arenas.
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During the inquiries portion of the meeting, Councillor Dennis Moore asked the public that if they have a problem with anything related to the city, such as the condition of their street, they should call city hall, rather than becoming so frustrated that it’s hard to give them advice regarding their complaint.
“We will look after the problem one way or another,” said Moore.
He finds that often when disagreements occur, people don’t have the patience they used to, and it often turns to name-calling.
“Once it’s all over with, they calm down and apologize, but I think it could be handled a lot better,” said Moore.
