Tender awards were on Prince Edward County council's agenda on Tuesday, July25 that totaled to over $1.9 million in bridge rehabilitation contracts.

According to staff reports, the costs associated with the bridge rehabilitation will be over $1.5 million for the Loyalist Parkway Bridge, and over $400 thousand for the Burr Road Bridge.

South Marysburgh Councillor John Hirsch raised concerns that staff were not sufficiently examining imaginative and non-traditional engineering solutions pertaining to bridge design and questioned the impartiality of the county’s hired consultant engineers. For example, "In Buchanan County, Iowa, where they're using old railroad flatbed cars over small creeks...and they are building bridges like that for $100,000," he said.

Council also voted against purchasing a new Pumper Fire Apparatus for Station 1 (Picton) for a full-time replacement for an over twenty year-old truck. The estimated cost is $599 thousand plus applicable taxes.  The motion was defeated even though an allocation of $650 thousand had previously been approved for its purchase in the 2023 Capital Budget this past February.

Picton Councillor Phil St-Jean expressed frustration in his critique of the majority of council’s shortsightedness concerning critical infrastructure needs.

"How many times is this council going to put money in a budget for critical pieces of equipment, and then turn around just because we see the price tag?" he asked. "We're getting to the point where it's getting ridiculous, folks."

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