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Kincardine
approves high-priced pump for water treatment plant |
Kincardine Council(continued) |
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Kincardine council has okayed the purchase of a second backwash pump at the Kincardine Water Treatment Plant, even though the approved quote was the highest of three, at almost $40,000. In committee-of-the-whole Wednesday night (Oct. 7), public works manager Jim O'Rourke said there is $140,000 in this year's capital budget to purchase and install the pump. B.M. Ross and Associates, the municipal engineer, obtained quotes from three suppliers, with the following results: Rudi Kovacko and Associates, $25,940; National Process Equipment, $29,528; and International Water Supply, $38,939.25. O'Rourke said that due to the lengthy period required to get the pump, council was asked to approve the purchase prior to the tendering of the contract to install the pump. Also, on the advice of the engineer, council was asked to okay the high bidder, International Water Supply of Barrie, due to technical reasons. The most expensive pump can be controlled by a variable frequency drive (VFD), said O'Rourke, and control of backwash rates is an important aspect of the operation of the filters. "At present, control is only provided by the valving, however, a VFD-controlled pump will provide the operators with much greater flexibility when setting up the backwash rates," he said. "This is already in your budget, so why are we dealing with this at council?" asked councillor Randy Roppel.
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"Because we're recommending the highest-priced quote," said O'Rourke.Councillor Guy Anderson questioned why council continues to exempt one purchase after another from the municipal tendering policy. "When did we know about this? Did the other companies not know about this better pump?" "The engineer's specifications were not that narrow," said O'Rourke.
"If they didn't quote on a similar product, we could get complaints from
the other companies," said Anderson. "The engineer should have set the quote on a specific pump so it would be an equal playing field," said councillor Gordon Campbell. "This is a better pump and the engineer says it's what we need, so get it," said councillor Mike Leggett. "I support this purchase," said deputy mayor Laura Haight. "I agree we should go through the process to ensure we're getting value for the public's dollar, but in this case, it's unlikely the two lower quotes were able to provide this pump or they would've been asked." Later in the meeting, council approved the purchase and installation of the pump from International Water Supply.
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