A nearly new ice resurfacing machine will find a new home in Bashaw following town council’s decision to spend money now in order to save on possible future repairs.
The 4-1 vote — Coun. Lynn Schultz was opposed — approved the $85,000 purchase of a 2014 Olympia Millennium 2000 ice resurfacer with just 640 hours of service and a 4.8 litre Vortec GM engine. The option that was turned down was a 2008 Zamboni 440 at $48,000 with over 2,600 hours, a unit that is a newer version of the town’s current 1992 unit that has seen its fair share of repairs and problems.
When Public Works foreman Murray Holroyd was asked about a preference, he expressed concern about the Zamboni unit, knowing a lot of work would be needed. Meanwhile, CAO Theresa Fuller added that of the references from area municipalities on their machines, the Olympia produced the most positive results for performance and service.
Aside from likely not having to invest money into repairs for the newer machine, the other benefit included not having to refund some of the funds given to the town to purchase a new machine. Camrose County had committed $50,000, Ponoka County $3,000 and $4,000 from the Bashaw Area Recreation Board, which left Bashaw to come up with $28,000 that will come from reserves.
During the discussion, Schultz was concerned about the depletion of the town’s various reserves with this and other spending.
“Where is the money going to keep coming from if we continue to use our reserves?” he said.
“If you just look at the hours, I know there is only one option, but it’s about our reserves.”
Coun. Rosella Peterman and Mayor Penny Shantz felt the town couldn’t really wait much longer on a decision, with Peterman noting the town can either pay more now or figure on possible expensive repairs later on.
“The money seems like a lot, but if we go with the lower price model and in the future we have to go back with our hands out to replace it, the reception might not be great next time,” she said.
“The Olympia is I think the wiser decision.”
Coun. Rob MacDonald felt that the difference between the town’s share of the two options — $28,000 for the Olympia and $15,000 for the Zamboni — showed there was an obvious choice.
“Seeing that, the paying just $28,000 makes a lot of sense,” he said.
The new unit is expected to be in Bashaw before the ice is installed for the looming hockey season.
Community hall
In following up on the July 13 presentation by Nordic Systems on repairing the present heating and air conditioning control system and adding a maintenance deal, council approved spending the nearly $37,000 to give Nordic the chance to fix the situation.
Council read over the several references it had requested and listened to some further advice from administration before unanimously passing a motion to use Nordic’s interest free monthly payment plan to pay for the three-year contract and product upgrades for the control system.
Holroyd explained that even if Nordic’s changes don’t work as well as the company has stated, the resulting change of the control equipment could be worked on by other contractors whereas the current system is specific to one company and has become very costly to fix.
Shantz felt the presentation combined with the references showed the company seems very reliable, while Schultz was willing to simply get something done as things can’t get worse.
“With all we’ve seen and been put through, I can’t see us not doing something different,” said Schultz.
Meanwhile, MacDonald asked if the town had any recourse against the engineers or a contractor and was told the engineering firm is no longer operating while legal action against any other company would prove difficult and expensive.