South Glengarry public works building design won by new firm

LANCASTER – A neophyte engineering firm has won the contract to design South Glengarry’s $1 million public works building.

The township received 14 bids recently with a price range of $24,160 to $127,665 and Infrastructure GM Ewen MacDonald says the scoring was very close based on their evaluation.

The successful bidder was IN Engineering.

“IN Engineering is a firm that we do not know. They are a new firm that was formed in June 2018. They are engineers with experience. It’s a firm with essentially three people,” MacDonald explained to council.

But MacDonald is not too concerned. “This is not OC Transpo. We’re not building a very sophisticated building here.” It will be a five-bay garage with two offices, a storage room and a staff room.

It’s hoped the engineering design will give the township a better idea of cost to build the public works building, which had a rough estimate at $1.2 million.

“That will go in harmony with the work that we’re doing as far as moving forward with the renovations and the conversion of the Williamstown public works facility to a fire hall in 2019,” Infrastructure GM Ewan MacDonald told council.

But a final location for the public works building is not nailed down.

The new public works building had been planned for Airport Road next to the salt dome. But the province changed the zoning of the land to agricultural, killing any sort of development. That change is under appeal.