The pre-tender estimate provided by Muhannad Bagajati of RV Anderson & Associates was $2,650,000 but it was a lower amount that went into the actual budget. The original budget had a provision of $2,375,000. We're not exactly clear why it was posted short by $275,000 to start with. Is this what Mayor Dennis Travale meant when he said 'we have a very very very tight budget to deal with' at the budget meeting?
Of the top 4 bids the local firm of Reid & DeLeye Limited out of Courtland was the highest at $3,593,774.60 but did promise to have the work done 38 days sooner than the winning bidder. The bid was awarded to Finnbilt General Contracting Limited out of Stratford for a cost of $3,430,226 to be completed in 280 days. Included in this cost is a $250,000 contingency and an engineering fee of $355,000 for a total price of $3,851,845.98 including HST.
That's a total of $1,476,845 over budget! If you've missed your estimate by that much money you might as well be throwing a dart at a dart board for your next budget! Now we haven't used an Engineering firm for a while now but could someone explain why their costs are always rounded to the nearest $1,000? Do engineers now work for a mere $1000 per hour in Norfolk County?
For painting the 846,000 kms of lines required on the roads the total cost is $141,179.94 which was 40% cheaper than what Norfolk County Roads Department could have done it.
The Queensway/Norfolk/Robinson street sidewalk and crosswalk had a budget of $106,000 and the actual tender amount came in at $162.159.52 including taxes. That's $56,159.52 over budget or a 53% misfire. At what point does Public Works start learning how to estimate properly? Eric D'Hondt is the Manager of Public Works and made $146,287.65 in 2013 after receiving his almost 4% raise from 2012. Obviously this raise was not based on performance. He's been with the County for many years but clearly his department is off the road when it comes to guesstimating any project costs. Let's just hope it's not his department installing the fence for the new dog park or that will be over budget as well!
Another local company, Dufferin Concrete bid on the sidewalk / crosswalk project but was a whopping $77,966 over the winning bid. A firm from just south of Cambridge can drive that far every day and still come in at 2/3d's the price of the local firm that is on the same street as the project! Is Dufferin Concrete paying too much in property tax to be competitive or are they using Norfolk County Staff for the project?
With the Norfolk County unemployment being over 10% it's a shame that these local businesses are not competitive in their bidding process. They may want to sharpen their pencils for the next opportunity.
If you include the $1.3 million over run for the new digs at the Administration Building and this $1.4-m shortfall the budget is already off by $2,700,000.
Where will the additional funds come from? That's easy. Kick other projects down the road and raid the cupboards. Unfortunately the reserves have already been raided in some cases. Here's a breakdown of the pertinent reserve accounts but keep in mind the 2013 figures are based on Staff's projected balances. We seriously doubt that there is this much cash available.
Invest in Ontario Reserve
Dec 31, 2012 $1,183,872
Dec 31, 2013 $157,080
Loss $1,026,792
Roadway Reconstruction Reserve
Dec 31, 2012 -$16,039,301
Dec 31, 2013 -$27,236,270
Loss $11,969,969
Gas Tax Revenue Reserve Fund
Dec 31, 2012 $10,041,954
Dec 31, 2013 $974,787
Loss $9,067,167
Wastewater Capital Replacement Reserve Fund
Dec 31, 2012 $4,669,244
Dec 31, 2013 -$2,773,428
Loss $7,442,672
Total Loss of Reserves $29,506,600
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