A public meeting intended to explain why the Big Prairie Bridge will not be replaced this year was never held ñ and last week Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere asked why not.ìThat meeting was never conducted and I'm curious why Ö when it was a direction of council to have the meeting,î Kemmere said at the outset of Wednesday's regular council meeting.Div. 2 Coun. Trish McKean said she had contacted Dave Street, the community liaison on the bridge project, and with many people away for the summer ìhe felt a meeting wouldn't be appropriate,î she said. Instead, a letter from CAO Tony Martens outlining the situation was mailed out to affected residents.Kemmere replied that he'd been contacted for information by people from the community and if only 10 or 15 had showed up, the meeting would have still served a purpose.Most troubling, he said, was the process of ignoring a council directive.McKean reiterated that her understanding was that the community did not want the meeting.ìThey were getting word from the media about what was going on and they were very upset,î she said.Reeve Paddy Munro added: ìMr. Street gave his opinion that (the letter) was the way to go.îìIf we're going to go against a council motion Ö at least all of council should be aware,î Kemmere said, ending the discussion.In early July, council decided to put the bridge reconstruction project on hold and re-tender it for an Oct. 30, 2012 completion date after the lowest of two bids came in at almost $2.8 million ñ or $1.1 million higher than the estimate.CIMA consulting engineer Randy Shalagan recommended re-tendering, saying the short schedule likely drove up costs but was unavoidable because of the need to obtain the required permits from federal agencies.ìDespite the best efforts of all involved the required permits were not obtained until June 28. This resulted in the tender being opened July 5 with substantial completion to be done by Nov. 30,î Shalagan wrote.ìThe tight construction window, the difficulty obtaining key materials (corrosion resistant reinforcing steel, only one supplier) combined with the recent rainfall events most likely resulted in prices being higher than estimated.îThe province has agreed to pay half of the project's estimated cost, or about $800,000.The bridge was destroyed by arson in October 2009. The crime remains unsolved.
