By Stephen Vance, Staff
The Municipality of Meaford should consolidate the two operating centres for road maintenance into one facility at the 7th Line operations centre and should outsource three to five snow plow routes, according to a consultant hired to review Meaford’s winter maintenance, roadway maintenance, and fleet management for the municipal operations department.
Derek Ali, of St. Catharines-based DFA Infrastructure International Inc., presented a report to council on April 27 after his firm had reviewed Meaford’s Operations Department, in order to offer recommendations for best practices, service level improvements, improvements to staff training, and to identify opportunities for outsourcing some of the work currently done by the department.
Ali told council that the municipality has a dedicated and capable staff in the operations department, however there are opportunities to make improvements to the department that could result in significant savings in the future. He noted that the department accounts for 22 percent of the municipal operating budget, and is responsible for the maintenance of some 762 lane-kilometres of roads. He also noted that comparable municipalities seem to maintain their roads at a lower cost.
While Meaford’s cost per lane-kilometre for winter road maintenance is $1,124, comparable municipalities average just $789. Also noted was Meaford’s ageing fleet of 57 vehicles – nearly 50 percent of which are beyond their normal service life.
Ali told council that the department has two service yards, one at the main operations centre on the 7th Line and the other in Sydenham, that should be combined into one facility in order to improve efficiency and optimize the use of staff and resources.
While the municipality had planned to outsource three routes on a trial basis next winter, Ali suggested that between three to five plow routes – or between 28 to 44 percent of the overall lane-kilometres – could be contracted out. The report also suggested that winter sidewalk maintenance could be outsourced.
The more than 125-page report brought about many questions and comments from members of council.
Councillor Tony Bell questioned whether a private company could provide winter road maintenance more cheaply than the municipality, and he also indicated that he wasn’t in favour of closing the Sydenham yard. “I definitely, really, do not like the idea of the Sydenham depot not being used. I believe that western ratepayers would be very upset,” suggested Bell.
Deputy Mayor Harley Greenfield took issue with the report, and voted against council even receiving the report. “I appreciate your efforts,” Greenfield told Ali. “I’m not sure I agree with everything you’ve put in front of us.”
Greenfield questioned why the routes selected to outsource were all in the Sydenham portion of the municipality. Ali explained that the routes were selected because they could be easily segregated from the other routes as they don’t intersect with others, making it easier to assign responsibility for a group of routes.
Councillor Mike Poetker asked who is ultimately responsible for ensuring minimum maintenance standards are met if routes are outsourced to a private company. “The municipality is,” advised Ali, adding that the municipality would still need to monitor and inspect roads maintained by private contractors.
Council voted 5-2 in favour of receiving the report, and it will now be sent to municipal staff who will bring their own report to council at a future meeting.
