Contracts awarded

City council awarded nearly $9 million local infrastructure projects at Monday night’s meeting.

One of the contracts approved by council includes improvements at Delaney Arena and Fort William Stadium. The city plans to use matching funds from the federal government to carry out $1million worth of improvements.

That work includes upgrades to the parking lot, expansion of concession areas, new accessible washrooms, and improved Transit access and is expected to take two years to complete.

Council approved three contracts worth more than $5 million for water main and sewer line replacements. Council also approved a $2.8-million contract up for road paving projects on several city streets.

A few councillors had questions before approving the contracts.

Councillors Rebecca Johnson and Trevor Giertuga asking any questions wanted to know how the city faired concerning the budget.

Pat Mauro, manager of engineering for the city, said the city is slightly under budget with the contracts by roughly $100,000.

But Mauro added that the city hasn’t completed the tender process and there could be a possibility of going over budget.

City treasurer Carol Busch also explained to council that the TbayTel divide fund was earmarked for capital projects. While the Renew Thunder Bay fund was an option, Busch said they thought it was more appropriate if they used the TbayTel fund.

At-Large Coun. Aldo Ruberto requested that administration present a report on how much the city spends on facilities such as arenas, pools and fields.

In other business, council heard from Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon who voiced concerns over safety along Junot Avenue.
The main concerns centre around safety for children and for seniors who live in the area.

This issue was brought up to council by Alaina King, co-chair of the Community Action Group, in February and suggested putting in a controlled crossing signal or reducing the speed back to 40 kilometres an hour from 50 and an increased police presence.

That stretch of road is expected to become even busier with the Golf Links Road-Junot Avenue corridor.

The area between Junot Avenue and Blucher Crescent is becoming a busy intersection and with the expansion of the Golf Links Road-Junot corridor, McKinnon said he would like to look at options to calm traffic.

Some of the suggestions McKinnon put forward included a community safety zone or reducing the speed back to 40 kilometres per hour.

“It could be one of those speed devices that tell you how fast you’re going or could be crosshatching to indicate where pedestrians are crossing,” he said. “The Boys and Girls Club is there, the Superior North EMS is there so it is an extremely busy area. We’re looking at a four-lane in three years and it is going to get busier. More permanent solutions are going to need to be found. It might be an activated crosswalk.”

Although ideally McKinnon would have liked to see one of these measures implemented by the summer, he guessed the soonest one of the options could take affect would be by September.