Staff
Town council awarded the tender for the building of a wildlife control fence at the local airport during its regular meeting last night.
The tender was awarded to Wilco Contractors Superior Inc. at an estimated cost of $381,743.38, which includes HST, a contingency allowance of $20,000, and with provisional items of 20 poles set in bedrock.
“This entire process is going to be covered by a grant,” Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft stressed at last night’s meeting.
“Just to reaffirm this idea that this is not coming out of our coffers—this entire cost is being covered by a federal grant,” he reiterated.
Funding for the fencing to the tune of $589,900 was announced June 29 through Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP).
The bid which came in actually is below the grant amount, noted Coun. Paul Ryan, so the town will have to refund the difference.
“We’re not getting ahead here but we’re getting a nice fence out of this to keep the deer off the runway, for safety reasons,” Coun. Ryan noted.
As previously reported, the local airport has experienced problems with deer on the runway for the past several years.
While permitting members of the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club to hunt deer at the airport served as a short-term solution, the town always maintained the preferred long-term one was a wildlife fence.
Two other contractors submitted bids for the tender, including Wallace & Wallace Fences Ltd. and Heikki Lampi Sand & Gravel Ltd.
But these bids were higher than the one submitted by Wilco.
