{"id":15380,"date":"2016-09-28T17:25:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T21:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15380"},"modified":"2016-09-28T17:25:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T21:25:42","slug":"safety-trumps-cost-as-speed-hump-project-moves-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/safety-trumps-cost-as-speed-hump-project-moves-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety trumps cost as speed hump project moves forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nThe safety of residents outweighed a significant increase in costs last week as Council moved forward on a pilot project to install a series of speed cushions on sections of three busy local streets: Kennedy Street West, Mavrinac Boulevard, and McMaster Avenue.
\nCouncillors, sitting at the Committee level last week, decided to forge ahead with the pilot on all three streets after considering starting with the Kennedy stretches after bids for the total project came in $40,000 over the estimated budget.
\nStaff initially suggested putting the pilot on ice until the New Year and re-tendering when prices might be more competitive in the paving industry, but although history indicates getting new bids in the winter results in a better price, Ilmar Simanovskis, Aurora\u2019s Director of Infrastructure, said it was not a guarantee.
\nOn September 20, Council asked for more information on what it would cost to carry out a separate contract just for Kennedy and re-tendering for the balance. They learned at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting that this would cost more than half of the project\u2019s original $100,000 budget at $52,305.
\n\u201cIf Council is making a decision to proceed with some, I think we should proceed with all because we\u2019re proceeding with some based not on a financial perspective, but because we think there is a safety issue and I think we need to move forward,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson, responding to a motion put forward by Councillor Tom Mrakas that they proceed with Kennedy. \u201cIf [safety] is the rationale to proceed with some, then I think that is the same rationale over all three. I don\u2019t see how you can say this takes precedence over another one without taking into consideration that impact.\u201d
\nThis was a view shared by Councillor Jeff Thom, who said the safety factor changed the landscape.
\n\u201cThat is the rationale moving forward with Kennedy, that if it is safer, what about the other two?\u201d he said. \u201cI will remind everyone that we\u2019re talking about a pilot project. If we\u2019re going ahead with that one, find the funding source [for the rest].\u201d
\nCouncillor Mrakas, on the other hand, said he had no issue in awarding the whole project but given the previous week\u2019s discussion, said he didn\u2019t feel anyone was in favour of it going ahead over-budget, so simply moving forward Kennedy Street seemed the next logical step.
\n\u201cI thought it would be more suitable and more agreeable if we just worked on that one, saw how it went, and then worked on the other two, but [if everyone is comfortable] let\u2019s work on all three,\u201d he said.
\nFor some Councillors, however, \u201cagreeable\u201d might not have been the right word, but simply an acknowledgement of reality.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s do this,\u201d said Councillor Harold Kim. \u201cIt is painful to think that we\u2019re paying more than we should have but, again, whatever the probabilities might be, the pricing might be lower in the spring. Because there is no guarantee and there is a safety issue, let\u2019s do it all at once instead of dragging it out for another 16 months.\u201d
\nAdded Councillor Wendy Gaertner: \u201cI am going to vote for this, but it really pains me because we are putting safety in one hand and fiscal responsibility in the other, and safety has always trumped. Wow.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The safety of residents outweighed a significant increase in costs last week as Council moved forward on a pilot project to install a series of speed cushions on sections of three busy local streets: Kennedy Street West, Mavrinac Boulevard, and McMaster Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-404","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 10:57:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}