Port Stanley harbour dredging contract awarded

Central Elgin councillors on Monday, Sept. 28, voted unanimously to award a contract to dredge Port Stanley Harbour and create with reclaimed soil a new piece of land for a park to Huron District Contracting of Goderich, which had the low tender at $2.987-million, just slightly higher than the engineer’s estimate for the work.

But the other four tender prices considered by councillors went way, way up from there. The second-lowest, from East Elgin Concrete Forming of Tillsonburg, the company that just refurbished the harbour’s west breakwater, came in at $5.176-million, and the highest of the three others at $9.7-million.

The Huron District bid was the fourth opened, Physical Services Director Lloyd Perrin told councillors, “And I can tell you I had chest pains at the first one,” because it was so far over the estimate.