The town of Sackville will be repaving nearly twice as many streets this year, thanks to a 2021 top-up from the Canada Community Building Fund, also known as the gas tax fund. Though the Community Building Fund can be used for a variety of infrastructure projects, Sackville council and staff opted to put the money solely towards road paving projects.
The town has nearly a million dollars to spend on road projects this year, with just over $423,000 coming from this year’s gas tax fund, and just over $410,000 coming from the top-up handed out to municipalities last year. Another nearly $100,000 is leftover from previous gas tax budgets.
At Monday’s special council meeting, outgoing town engineer Dwayne Acton responded to a question about whether this year’s generous list of project would put Sackville ahead of schedule in road paving. “Not necessarily ahead of schedule,” said Acton, “but it definitely can go a long ways in adding additional streets to our paving list.”
“Over the last probably eight years we’ve done a fair amount of repaving which definitely helps in the community and in our residential streets,” said Acton.
The original list of paving projects that was put out to tender will need to be adjusted slightly, because even the lowest bid came in above the amounts budgeted back in 2021. Acton told council that cost increases are not uncommon between budget estimates and actual bids, and that the paving industry is dealing with increased supply costs.
All streets will still get some work, said Acton, but the length of the repaving will be reduced on Crescent, Ogden Mill, and Morice Drive.
At their meeting Monday, council will consider approving a tender to hire Costin Paving of Amherst to pave the adjusted list of streets, as well as the parking lot at Lillas Fawcett park for the price of $732,000. They will also consider awarding a separate tender to Bowser Construction for about $350,000, for the full reconstruction of Morgan Lane.
Acton’s final council meeting
The banner year in paving will be a legacy left by Dwayne Acton, the town’s engineer who attended his final council meeting on Monday night.
Acton is moving on to a role with Mount Allison University, serving as manager of projects, where he says he will have a chance to focus more on engineering and less on management.
CAO Jamie Burke noted the occasion on Monday evening. “It is a sad day for for the entire management team,” said Burke. “This individual poured his heart and soul into this organization and this community.”
“I’ve told you all before,” said Burke, “it will be an extremely difficult position to backfill, so on behalf of all of my colleagues across the organization, thank you, Dwayne, for what you’ve done.”
The recruitment for a new town engineer is underway.
