Last week Tantramar council approved over a million dollars in spending in Dorchester, with a tender awarded for the reconstruction of Station Road and an approval to buy a new pumper truck for the Dorchester Fire Department. But both purchases hit snags with budget limitations before they were approved.
The reconstruction of Station Road will see 115 metres of roadway rebuilt with curbs and storm sewers. The lowest bidder on the project was Bowsers’ Construction, but even their bid of roughly $312,000 (HST included) was about $50,000 too high for the allocated budget. Town engineer Jon Eppell told council he came close to recommending reducing the length of the reconstruction by one fifth, but Treasurer Michael Beal came up with a fix, thanks to some unspent funds in the municipality’s snow removal budget.
Last year, Tantramar decided to buy additional equipment in order to take on snow clearing in Dorchester. Previously, the village had relied on private contractors to do the work. Because staff weren’t sure if the equipment would arrive in time for the snow season, the town kept its budget allocation for contracted snow removal in this year’s budget. But the equipment did arrive in time, and so that money was not spent, which turns out to be good news for Station Road.
“Within the 2024 budget for the Dorchester sub-unit, we have $90,000 that is unallocated,” Beal told council last week. “So Finance looked at that, and is recommending that $50,000 of it goes towards Station Road, so that we are able to complete the project.”
Beal told council that putting off completion of the project to another year would likely increase the eventual expense.
The other $40,000 in unspent operations money for Dorchester will go to another local project: a new fire hall for the Dorchester Fire Department.
“We are also nearing the the ready stages to hire an architect for the design of the Dorchester fire hall,” Beal told council. “We will likely need additional money which we had said we could take out of our reserve fund. But since we have these available funds, we would look to reallocate the remaining portion of that $90,000 towards that project that will be moving quite rapidly as we move into the fall season and in the spring of 2025.”
The Request for Proposals for professional design services for the new fire hall closed on Wednesday, June 19.
New fire hall needed to accommodate new pumper truck
After another decision at council’s June meeting, the construction of a new Dorchester fire hall is even more of a priority. Council approved spending roughly $920,000 (HST included) on a new pumper truck for the fire service, which is expected to be delivered in about 2 years. That gives the town about two years to build a new fire hall big enough to accommodate the new truck.
Councillor Josh Goguen asked about the situation last week.
“Just one burning question,” said Goguen. “Will this fit in the current fire hall?”
“No. it won’t,” said Dorchester Fire Chief Greg Partridge, to some laughter around the council table.
Beal explained that the town was on target to have a new fire hall constructed and ready to open by the spring of 2026, in time to take delivery of the new fire truck.
“We remain on target,” said Beal. “If that target fails, then we will have to determine where the vehicle will be stored until such time as the construction gets completed.”
“The key is we want to purchase our fire trucks to fight the fires that they need to fight, and not to fit inside of buildings,” said Beal, noting that there has been a history of doing so in the past, which has meant shorter lifespans for vehicles.
Dorchester fire captain Dennis Reid gave councillors some background on the service’s fleet management. He told council that the service usually has two pumper-tankers, with the newer one serving as a pumper truck, and the older one serving as a tanker, to bring extra water to a fire scene. The trucks typically last about 25 years in this manner, with Dorchester Fire purchasing a new truck every 12-13 years.
The new truck ordered from Metalfab came in about $35,000 over budget, but Beal told council that since the expected delivery of the truck is not for another 18-24 months, the balance could come out of next year’s capital spending budget.
