DGS Astro Paving has been in town, paving areas on the lower bench.
This has caused some confusion, as there is nothing in this year’s District’s budget for street paving.
And the work being done is on areas that were paved back in 2017.
According to the District, the roads were originally paved in 2017 and 2018, but shortly after the work was done, the District identified deficiencies in the paving.
The District began negotiating with DGS and, in 2020, they announced that they had entered into a service agreement with the company, “to correct paving deficiencies from 2017 to 2018, at no cost to the District’s taxpayers.”
DGS began work in 2020 to correct the worst of the issues. They didn’t do any work on the roads in 2021 and 2022, but have returned this year to continue their work on the roads, part of a “multi-year remediation program.”
According to the District, the negotiations for the work that needed to be done required legal advice, which meant that the discussions were held in closed meetings. “The District involved our legal counsel and consultants to work with DGS to ensure that the deficiencies were remedied and to ensure that the District’s rights were adequately protected,” says a recent press release from the District.
“In addition, the service agreement provides for the independent review of the remedial work to ensure that it is performing as expected.”
According to the release, the remedial work undertaken by DGS this year and in the future is at no cost to the District’s taxpayers. “This is a multi-year project and the District appreciates DGS working to complete these warranty items, at its cost.
“As the discussions between the District and DGS were to resolve a dispute and required legal advice, the discussions and service agreement were considered by the District at meetings that were closed to the public. The District regrets not having advised the public earlier.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
