http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/ by Michele Young
Rose Hill residents face a 52 per cent jump in the original estimated cost of hooking up their part of the city with the Kamloops sewage system. The president of their community association appealed to City council Tuesday to find a way of rejigging the numbers and bringing them down. Dan Seymour said the neighbourhood has been pushing for a link to the City’s
sewage system for the past four years, and that the original estimate was in the ballpark of $6,600 per household. While they anticipated the project would get hit with an increase due to the upward trend in construction costs, they didn’t expect it would raise the price-tag up to nearly $10,000 per home, he said. “Ten thousand dollars is starting to push the envelope.” With some septic systems failing, the Rose Hill sewage system has been considered a health issue, Seymour said, adding it would cost about $25,000 per home to install individual sewage-treatment systems. “The answer is the sewer, no doubt,” he said, adding he’d like to see an additional $200,000 found to bring the cost per household down to $8,000. David Trawin, director of development and engineering services for the City, said the total project is now estimated at $3,663,837 — up about $600,000 from the original calculations. The province is chipping in $1.2 million, while Rose Hill Estates is contributing $151,524. That leaves about $1.3 million, with the residents to pay 80 per cent and the City putting in 20 per cent. Trawin said those numbers come out to $259,396 for the City and $1,037,584 to be split among the 104 Rose Hill homeowners. Coun. Peter Milobar noted that with the original estimate, the City would have put in $173,000. So the jump in construction costs has also boosted the amount that Kamloops taxpayers are chipping in, he said. Len Hrycan, corporate and community affairs director for the City, said the bylaw process that saw Rose Hill residents vote to contribute 80 per cent of the cost can’t be changed now. Seymour said residents would try to find other ways to get funding, perhaps from higher levels of government. “We’ll meet with our executive and look at options,” he said. “The City hasn’t realized what’s happening in the construction industry.” Council also voted on approving the lowest bidders to be given contracts for the project, which has been divided into three parts. Extreme Excavating has one part at $793,150, Acres Enterprises is doing part two for $1,181,335 and DDC Construction won part three at $444,352. Work is expected to begin next year.
Rose Hill residents face a 52 per cent jump in the original estimated cost of hooking up their part of the city with the Kamloops sewage system. The president of their community association appealed to City council Tuesday to find a way of rejigging the numbers and bringing them down. Dan Seymour said the neighbourhood has been pushing for a link to the City’s
sewage system for the past four years, and that the original estimate was in the ballpark of $6,600 per household. While they anticipated the project would get hit with an increase due to the upward trend in construction costs, they didn’t expect it would raise the price-tag up to nearly $10,000 per home, he said. “Ten thousand dollars is starting to push the envelope.” With some septic systems failing, the Rose Hill sewage system has been considered a health issue, Seymour said, adding it would cost about $25,000 per home to install individual sewage-treatment systems. “The answer is the sewer, no doubt,” he said, adding he’d like to see an additional $200,000 found to bring the cost per household down to $8,000. David Trawin, director of development and engineering services for the City, said the total project is now estimated at $3,663,837 — up about $600,000 from the original calculations. The province is chipping in $1.2 million, while Rose Hill Estates is contributing $151,524. That leaves about $1.3 million, with the residents to pay 80 per cent and the City putting in 20 per cent. Trawin said those numbers come out to $259,396 for the City and $1,037,584 to be split among the 104 Rose Hill homeowners. Coun. Peter Milobar noted that with the original estimate, the City would have put in $173,000. So the jump in construction costs has also boosted the amount that Kamloops taxpayers are chipping in, he said. Len Hrycan, corporate and community affairs director for the City, said the bylaw process that saw Rose Hill residents vote to contribute 80 per cent of the cost can’t be changed now. Seymour said residents would try to find other ways to get funding, perhaps from higher levels of government. “We’ll meet with our executive and look at options,” he said. “The City hasn’t realized what’s happening in the construction industry.” Council also voted on approving the lowest bidders to be given contracts for the project, which has been divided into three parts. Extreme Excavating has one part at $793,150, Acres Enterprises is doing part two for $1,181,335 and DDC Construction won part three at $444,352. Work is expected to begin next year. 
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