They weren't necessarily happy with all the answers, but Hart Highlands area residents were happy to have more information on the project that will disrupt their streets and yards this summer.
On Tuesday night, city staff met with residents affected by the just-beginning sanitary sewer installation. The 100 homeowners are subject to a local area service tax of approximately $2.42 million to connect a 1,600 metre extension of a 200 mm diameter gravity sanitary sewer main along Berwick Drive, Dundee Drive, Wallace Crescent, Wallace Place and a portion of Langley Crescent.
Over the past couple of weeks, as the construction start date loomed, there were still questions that residents felt were unanswered.
"The meeting was very helpful in helping many of us better understand the project," said resident Kevin Brown. "I won't say for a minute that all of the answers made all of us happy here, because we still face a $30,000 to $40,000 bill, but it was very helpful to fill in the blanks of understanding about the project, and number two, understanding about the grant side of the project."
According to operations director Bill Gaal, there are no federal or provincial grant intakes available for this first phase of construction.
While there may be potential for grant opportunities through the New Building Canada Fund, those won't be for 2014 projects.
"If there was a disappointment of the evening it was our learning that if there was to be grant money to help offset the costs of homeowners of phase two, there's no mechanism to have it retroactive to phase one," said Brown.
Concern over the cost of the project also stemmed from the work being done by city crews as opposed to going out to a third-party contractor.
"We're seeing a tremendous amount of resource work in the area - this is affecting both the number of contractors wanting to do our work and the contract prices that we're seeing," Gaal said. "In contracts like this, we're not seeing significant interest in our work and the prices are reflecting that."
Though there weren't any guarantees, Brown said Gaal offered the group "every assurance" that the project could be done within the scope of the $2.42 million estimate.
"Mr. Gaal did provide every assurance based on having been a part of delivering many of these projects over the years that the price tag as proposed will leave lots of room to get the project done and with any luck maybe a little bit less. No guarantees of anything of course, but he's quite confident."
