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Lakeshore Advance, 2012-10-31, Page 5Wednesday, November 16, 2011 • Lakeshore Advance 9 Bluewater chooses partially built Grand Bend sewage treatment plant 1111 Lakeshore sewer dr project off the table option, which (:our. (Gillespie favours, it could still buy hack into the plant within 10 years and access its 21.4 per cent of sewage allocation. Vanessa Brown Coun. Gillespie's motion to OMI Agency withdraw from the plant and not pay the capital cost didn't Faced with the unlikelihood of receive enough support, how - the Lakeshore sewer project ever, and lost 7-3. Deputy mayor !toiling into fruition at this time, Klapp and Conn, Becker voted .,luewater councillors narrowly in support. voted 6-4 in favour of a partially Coun. I lessel said councillors built Grand Bend sewage treat- should keep in mind their meat plant. municipality has the highest In a recorded vote held Nov. 7, projected growth in lluron those who voted yes for the County, particularly along the smaller build option were dep- lakeshore where the proposed uty mayor Paul Klopp, Corals. sewage collection system has John Gillespie, George Irvin, been studied, Janisse Zimmerman, Kay Wise But deputy mayor Klopp said and mayor Bill Dowson, their consulting engineer Bill Couns. Tyler Ilessel, Dave Boussey advised them that the Roy, John Becker and Geordie smaller build option would haut- Paltner were opposed. dle their area's sewage flows for Council reviewed six con- about 15 years. struction companies' quotations "We'll let the next generation for the Grand Bend Area Sewage pay for the upgrades," he sttid, Treatment Plant at its regular The lowest treatment plant meeting last week, and was tender came from K 811. Con - asked to recommend either a struction, of London, in the partial or full build option to the amount of $18,5 million for the tri -municipal committee the first phase and $4.6 trillion for next day. the second phase, totalling $23,2 In an interview last Wednes- million for a fully built plant. The day, Bluewater's utilities super- highest quotation came in at intendent Brent Kintner said $28.7 million. Bluewater's and South Huron's Council last Monday also tri -municipal board represents- voted unanimously to not start tives recommended the cheaper the lakeshore collection system partial build, while Lanlbton until government grants become Shores favoured the full build available. option. "1 would hope that we would only go with a partial build, because it will do the service for our area," said deputy mayor Paul Klopp, "Dillon (Consulting) said it would." Mayor Dowson said he prefers the full build option. Ills vote broke the 5-5 deadlock and tipped the scale toward a partial build "to get this thing going" Bluewater has three options regarding the treatment plant project. The first is to proceed and pay its share of the capital .costs - pegged at $1,3 million for .he partial option or $2.3 million for the full build option - up front. An annual ownership fee of $220,000 will apply as well. 'Ihe second option, according to Kittmer, is to withdraw from the plant for a maximum of 10 years but still pay its share of the capital and annual ownership costs. This option would allow Bluewater to continue to sit on the tri -municipal board with South Huron and Lampton Shores. Bluewater's final option is to withdraw for a maximum of 10 years and withhold payment up front. If Bluewater chooses the latter Without sewers along the iakeshore, Bluewater would not send any sewage to be treated at the new (;rand Bend plant. Coun. Gillespie questioned why, then, would the municipal- ity pay more than $1 trillion in capital costs to have it just sit there waiting for Bluewater to contribute sewage. "it wouldn't make sense for us to do that until we had our col- lection system in place'," he argued. Council has yet to determine who will pay for any costs. Water and sewage systems are typically user pay, said utilities superin- tendent Brent Kintner, but there aren't any users hooked into the system at this point. Deputy mayor Klapp said he would not support charging all residents of Bluewater for capi- tata and ownership costs. In a report submitted to coun- cil, Kintner also outlined the municipality's financing costs over a 20 -year period. Bluewater would borrow the money and, as such, pay up to $1.1 million in interest for the partial build or $1.9 million for the full build option, both over 20 years. The three municipalities have until Dec. 31 to commit to, or exit, the treatment plant project. Bluewater Triage (;entre The Bluewater Area Family I lealth'leam (BAN IT) is looking to designate its Zurich office as an alternate triage centre should Bluewater ever experience a dis- aster like the August tornado that struck the Goderich area, In a delegation before council at its Nov. 7 meeting, BAH IT administrative lead Anne Brabender suggested an approx- imately $:1,000 donation would allow the board to purchase sup- plies and equipment to operate as an effective triage centre. The family health team recently installed a gas genera- tor to keep the clinic running when the power goes out. "in the event of a community disaster or power failure the clinic could be utilized as a med- ical triage centre, as the gas gen- erator would operate the entire clinic," Brabender wrote in a report to council, Mayor Bill Dowson and Bay- field Councillor Geordie Palmer encouraged Brabender to sub- mit a grant application. Coun. Palmer also suggested the family health team appeal to the county for funding as well. "'Ihe fact that you identify it as an alternate triage centre might be beneficial in your application to the county to top the ante making sure we have alternates other than large centres," he said, Looking for Information Zurich Councillor lanisse Zimmerman has requested information regarding a Targe WSIB claim made by a Bluewa- ter firefighter between 2007 and 2011. (;our, 'l.immerma n's Oct. 17 motion for details, such as what happened and if anything has been clone to make sure the inci- dent doesn't happen again, was lost. "On further reflection, I'm not sure why 1 even had to have a motion. As a councillor, I feel that 1 should be able to obtain information just like the rest of the councillors," Coun. Zimmer- man said during council's Nov. 7 session. Coun, Zinun'rman explained she doesn't want to know the firefighter's name or the details of the claim, only if corrective measures have been taken so it doesn't happen again. But Coun. George Irvin and mayor B111 Dowson both said a council meeting is the place to ask questions, not individually request information from the chief administrative officer (CAO). "This is one council sitting together who all need to know the same answers to the same questions so it doesn't get interpreted different down the road," Dowson said. (:AO Lori Wolfe said the information will be addressed to all councillors. Municipalities have a responsibility to identify the cause of a workplace accident and keep a record of steps taken to correct the problem, Wolfe wrote in a WSIB report submitted to council on Oct. 17. Mayor Dowson's election expenses audit Bluewater's compliance audit com- mittee has appointed Froese forensic Partners t.td, to audit nutyor 13i11 Dow - son's election expenses. Dornier councillor and Bayfield resi- dent Jim Fergusson in the summer applied to have 1)owson's election expenses investigated. 'Ihe committee granted his request. On Oct. 27, the committee appointed the firth and set a maximum budget of $25,625 plus taxes, as well as an hourly rate. "1 don't think we anticipate it being very much work," Bluewater's chief administrative officer Lori Wolfe said. Bluewater will pay for the audit, Wolfe added. lue ater pasxIon - *immunity est / ome eimmunity? Connec tions Come join more thon 200 Volunteers who share their talents and skills with our Residents and Community members. t STUDENT VOLUNTEERS WELCOME! ��°�.� e��e,�� 46 4 a� olC ,°♦r F o • IP �p 4" c4 A�h \d�,A, y �IP veQ�c�'dr 44 Q • • • VOLUNTEERS WA NTED• • giv TRAINING PROVIDED Call 519.236.4373 ext. 631, or email: p.grootebtuewaterresthome.com ATTENTION ADVERTISERS! S. 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