Engineers are like lawyers – if you can navigate the issue without involving them, I believe you can save yourself a pretty penny.
I fear South Bruce council is learning this lesson at the expense of the taxpayers.
In this week’s paper, and online here, readers will see a story I wrote about how South Bruce council is attempting to deal with a $145,000 bill from an engineer.
The gist of the story: Two people petitioned for improvements to a municipal drain. After years of work, engineers drafted a report for council outlining a lot of work is needed to improve the drain, and at a high price tag, too. I’m assuming there was some sticker shock because the two landowners who initiated this process now claim they are no longer interested in improving the drain. This leaves the municipality with a bill for the expensive engineer report.
The engineer’s report includes a list of every meeting with property owners over the course of three years, while the report was being finalized.
My question is, how did this go on for so long?
Were these landowners honestly not made aware of the extent of work that would be needed to improve this drain, and the costs associated, until now?
If that was truly the case, I believe there should be some sort of quoting process before landowners enter this process because now it appears to be a waste of time, and inevitably taxpayers’ money.
Council directed staff to investigate who should pay the bill for this engineer’s report, and I only see it playing out three ways:
– the 13 landowners involved because it would be downright spiteful to ask the two who initiated the process to be on the hook;
– the municipality, which essentially means every tax-paying citizen, regardless of whether this drain impacts you or not; or
– both sharing the costs.
I honestly don’t know which is the right choice, and I don’t envy the councillors that need to debate this subject.
That is issue number one. For more information please read the full story.
Issue number two was not discussed by council.
I’m not sure how responsible it is for council to not proceed with the work outlined in the engineer’s report.
I know drainage is not an exciting thing to spend money on, but ignoring a drain with this much work required may come back to bite them in the behind.
This specific drain runs through 13 properties and ties into the Teeswater River.
The engineer’s report specifically states that if the river’s water levels rise, the drain back floods into the drain.
What if we were to experience another 100-year flooding and properties were damaged because of this malfunctioning drain? It’s easy to plead ignorance when you are not aware of the status of infrastructure like this. However, now council is more than aware of this issue.
I question if it is irresponsible for a council to ignore damaged infrastructure.
To make things even more complicated, the costs associated with the work outlined in the engineer’s report exceed $800,000.
I don’t know what the staff investigating this issue will bring to the next council meeting, but I’m sure somehow it is going to be paid for by taxpayers and that is really unfortunate.
I think the best-case scenario is some sort of policy developed to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
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Kelsey Bent is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Midwestern Newspapers. For comments or feedback, email kbent@midwesternnewspapers.com.
