Mayor Rod Peters has been harrying the engineeers who are quarterbacking the upgrade of the Lake Cowichan water treatment system, wanting to see it finished before the end of October.
He’s been emailing and chasing Stantec with phone calls because it’s been months since most of the work was done but the job’s not finished yet.
Peters has been stymied so far.
“I went up there on Saturday and I was very disappointed,” Peters told his colleagues at their Oct. 8 meeting. “Nothing had been done up there, not a thing. So, I went back, and wrote a nasty email, saying I’m getting very, very frustrated with the situation the way it is and something has to be done. I told him that I wanted a report by this meeting.
“I got an email Monday, and there’s two reports here. I have since emailed him [Shaun Swarbrick of Stantec] back and he is coming over. I said, ‘As soon as you’re in town, phone me, text me, send out smoke signals but I want to talk to you.’ And I want to talk to Tri-tech. They are the ones that are supposed to be doing the work and they’re very obvious by their absence. I’m not very happy about the whole thing. Is this our fourth or fifth promise report from these guys?
“This is going to be the last straw. When I see him next time, I am going to say, look, the paving has been delayed again. There was no reason it should have been delayed. It was due to be done all summer and it didn’t get done. That’s not an excuse. And the soda ash machine…that’s been a month. If I did that with my customers, said I’ll get the quote back to you in a month, they’d have the place built from Home Depot. [Peters’ business is the local Irly Bird lumberyard.] That’s not a viable excuse. We’ve got to get that done. I told him the end of October, and it’s got to be done. I’m not making any friends but I don’t care.”
McGonigle said, “I think it’s unfortunate that Shaun has been stuck in the middle between Tri-tech and the deficiencies. I think it’s Tri-tech that has been the one that is difficult to get in line.”
Peters agreed but said, “We have to get this done. If we give our ratepayers another boil water advisory, I’m going to have to move to Nitinat permanently.”
Update: municipal hall upgrade
In other Town of Lake Cowichan news, councillors got an update from CAO Joe Fernandez about the upgrade to the municipal hall.
“The fact that this building was constructed pre-1990 is causing progress to be painfully slow,” Fernandez began. “The roof tender was awarded to G&G Roofing Limited on Aug. 27 with the contractor unable to begin work without the overhead power lines being re-aligned…BC Hydro and the electrician have been given the go-ahead to proceed on this.
“In the meantime, as renovations to accommodate electrical work are required, a hazardous materials survey had to be commissioned. A local contractor is ready to undertake the renovation work…which would include installation of a pole at the existing council/staff entrance. An alternate entrance will also be constructed to replace the current one, which will become the electrical room. Once we get a clearance letter as required by WorkSafe guidelines work will begin on the required renovations and electrical work installations with the rooking work safe to begin then. We have now been cleared by the hazmat survey to proceed with work to accommodate the new electrical room and a new entrance door. This should begin the following week,” the report concluded.
lexi.bainas@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and fo
