Town council leaves garbage truck purchase in limbo

By Philip Buisseret
Commentator/Courier freelancer

At the Redcliff town council meeting on Feb. 10, the topic of purchasing a replacement garbage truck was discussed.
The proposed purchase was put to tender and prices ranging from $354,973 to$363,809 were received.
Town administration recommended the option which included a price of $361,809. Coun. Larry Leipert spoke to the motion, “I cannot justify anything other than the lowest price”, this resulted in a defeat of the motion. After having several other motions defeated and with only three councillors present at the meeting, town council had no choice but to defer the matter.
Mayor Dwight Kilpatrick was in favour of waiting saying, “we could hold off on awarding the tender until out budget has been struck as we are operating on interim funding at present.”.
Director of Public Services Corey Popick noted “the tenders are only valid for 30 days.” The quoted tenders also specified a delivery time of up to 360 days due to a backlog of orders.

Financial statements
Director of Finance and Administration for the Town, Jenny Tu presented the fourth quarter financial statement.
“ Total revenues are up by 6.8 per cent from the last quarter due in part to better than expected returns of 21.27 per cent on investments” she added.
“ Landfill revenues are up due to two large customers using the facility from Calgary” A landfill graph showed an increase of approximately 11,000 tonnes from October-December over the same period last year. The financial statement also showed an increase of 85.69 per cent in penalties received on outstanding taxes and utilities.

Annual walk
Mayor Kilpatrick reminded councillors that the annual “Coldest night of the Year” walk will take place on Feb. 22.