District of Muskoka will proceed with the upgrade to the Golden Pheasant Wastewater Treatment Plant in Huntsville
The District of Muskoka agreed to proceed with the upgrade to the Golden Pheasant Wastewater Treatment Plant in Huntsville, in the February 20, 2024, Council meeting.
The upgrade is phase two of the project approved by Council.
According to the staff report, the contract for the upgrade has been awarded to North America Construction for $15,725,806, not including tax.
The Commissioner of Public Works, James Steele, and Commissioner of Financial and Corporate Services, Suzanne Olimer, have been authorized to establish the agreement on behalf of the District.
Steele advised, “This Golden Pheasant is the second in a series of projects to upgrade the wastewater treatment in the Town of Huntsville. It’ll consolidate all treatment at the Golden Pheasant plant.”
He indicated that upon releasing the contract to the public for tendering staff received four proposals to complete the work.
He explained, “The engineer’s estimate for the work was about $18.7 million. The contracts came in at about $15.8 million. So, a bit of a reduction from what we expected.”
The initial 2024 Rate Supported Capital Budget and Forecast outlined in the staff report will be amended based on the new cost estimate.
Chair, Jeff Lehman, indicated, “It’s a project that has a large number of different sources of funding.”
Some of the funding sources for the project include Federal Grants, Wastewater and Hauled Sewage Development Charges, Sustainable Infrastructure Reserve Fund, Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund, other various Wastewater and Environmental Funds, and the Debt Reduction Reserve Fund.
Lehman acknowledged the progress of this second phase of the upgrade. He said, “Congratulations to staff on getting to this point on a very significant project.”
