(file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Infrastructure upgrades

Town plans sidewalk, paving improvements

Jun 13, 2023 | 8:26 PM

The Town of Battleford will get started on some much needed sidewalk and paving work this summer for its 2023 capital projects.

The issue was discussed at council’s recent meeting.

Mayor Ames Leslie said the tenders came back from the town’s engineering company for the paving work for Central Avenue – 15th to 19th Streets, and sidewalk replacement work for First Avenue West – from 18th Street to 21st Street, and 23rd Street – from Second Avenue West to Third Avenue West.

The town’s engineering consultants, BCL Engineering Ltd., recommended going with the firm G and C Asphalt Ltd., which came in with the lowest bid at $352,647 plus PST, engineering fees of 15 per cent of the cost, and contingencies for all three projects.

The total project cost including taxes is about $143,000 under budget.

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Coun. Doug Laing commented it’s good to see these projects happening, and “coming down the pipe.”

“It’s nice to see these projects continue to go, and that you are under budget,” he added.

Council approved the recommendation from administration to accept the bid from G and C Asphalt for the 2023 sidewalk and asphalt street improvement project.

Leslie noted to council that $21,158 of the cost is for PST alone on the project.

“It’s probably my biggest frustration with our sitting [provincial] government, to be charging municipalities PST on our projects ,” he said. “That’s half a per cent of taxation just to cover the PST on this project. We have to raise taxes just to cover the PST portion. I know the government says we get it back. But I don’t think we get it all back. I want to highlight that PST is still being paid on our projects through tax dollars. That’s always been a frustration of mine. Bear with me when I bring that up.”

Following council, Leslie said the upgrade work was needed to improve the town’s infrastructure.

“It’s three blocks totally of sidewalks being added, which is council’s commitment to improving safety in the community,” Leslie said. “Part of this sitting council’s commitment was to make the community safer for residents, and sidewalks was our big focus.”

He said it’s good to see this work moving ahead.

Leslie noted the paving project for a portion of Central Avenue was left over from last year’s work.

“It just ran out of time. So, Central Avenue will get repaved…,” he said. “It will be a nice improvement for that area.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow