Construction and Finance can be Beautiful!

5th Ave West, May 28, 2013

This is a great day: roads being repaired on budget and on time.



One of the things I am working on as Mayor is spending, our tax dollars, the Town’s money, prudently. Asset Management, or in accounting lingo, Asset Cost Recovery, is helping us achieve those goals. The pictures in this blog are all taken on 5^th Ave. The work being done, curb and gutter, with paving later, is the result of prioritizing which roads and underground infrastructure such as road, sanitation, and water, are in the worst condition, medium condition, and good condition.

Using our budget dollars we ask what is the best way of spending the money to achieve good infrastructure for a reasonable investment.



5th Ave West, May 28, 2013

Last year 5^th Ave wasn’t repaired because the state of the underground infrastructure was unknown. Now we know and spend the money wisely. As an example: the surface may be bad but the underground is poor or visa versa.

The tricky part about asset management is simple: the known unknowns. We know there is going to be something somewhere that is going to break. We don’t know what will break, when it will break, and, most importantly, how much it will cost to fix. How does the Town address it? Reserves.

Recently, I think it was in March, a water main ruptured causing a significant amount of inconvenience and damage to the neighbourhood. It took a number of days to repair and it cost almost $500,000. Why do I bring this up? The Town needs reserves to ensure that repairs like this can be made in a timely manner.

Timeliness is expensive. This past year the tenders for the road, sanitation, and water were put out a little early resulting in cost savings. Generally, projects that are urgent and need to be completed sooner than later are more expensive. By tendering our projects early companies were able to plan for our work and give us a price that was within our budget.

With our next budget I am hoping that we can have public input at an earlier stage and have it completed before the end of January. Yes it is early but the consensus is that the Town of Kindersley can realize a lot of savings by putting out tenders early and purchasing equipment in February rather than late spring and early summer.

This is a change for the Town and I am hoping that each of our tax dollars goes that much further.