It was ironically appropriate that in the same week that the Athabasca & District Music Festival hosted its final performances, Athabasca town council took the opportunity to toot its own horn.
Usually, members of the media and public attending town council meetings receive a copy of the agenda and not much else. But last Tuesday, attached to the agenda was a comprehensive, full-page summation of the bids received for the riverfront park project, with bold print used to stress the point that the lowest (and subsequently approved) bid came in at over $200,000 less than was estimated.
Over the last couple of years, town council has endured sporadic tongue-lashings, both privately and publicly, for seemingly dragging their heels on the riverfront park project — which, if you recall, was originally supposed to be part-and-parcel of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex project.
Most recently, the riverfront project was supposed to go to tender last fall, with an eye to hopefully advancing construction to some demonstrable level before this summer’s centennial celebrations.
But town council opted, on the advice of its engineers, to push the tendering back to January, believing that they would save substantial money by doing so, which drew the ire of those who feel the riverfront project is already long overdue.
Last Tuesday’s addendum to the council agenda, along with Mayor Roger Morrill’s comment, “I think it’s important to note just how much money we are saving here,” was council’s way of saying, “Nyah, nyah … told you so.”
Fair enough, Your Worship. A 20-per-cent cost savings is, indeed, significant, and holding off on the tendering achieved exactly the result that was hoped for. Well done. Great job.
Now can we please get on with it?
While achieving savings in the order of $200,000 is truly commendable, the other side of the coin, as it were, is that delaying projects can cause them to lose momentum, or wear on the public’s patience. Imagine, for instance, where we’d be today if construction of the multiplex was similarly postponed. Would the costs have dropped? Yes, probably. But would it have been worth the extra time spent operating out of aging, inefficient single-use facilities? That’s debatable.
So congratulations to town council on saving the taxpayers $200,000. Your horn-tooting is well-deserved. Meanwhile, the riverfront sits ready and waiting — let’s start moving.
