Holyrood approves Penney’s Lane waterline upgrade
By Mark Squibb
The Town of Holyrood has awarded a contract to upgrade the Penney’s Lane waterline to Kelco Construction for a cost of $97,239, HST included.
“Penney’s Lane has had quite a number of leaks there in the last year, and we’re trying to be proactive here and improve that and take on the problem areas as we can and keep fixing and replacing the old pipe with new,” explained councillor Steve Winsor.
The Town received seven quotes by the deadline, with Mayor Laura Crawley noting that some of the prices were “astronomical.”
Winsor said that Kelco’s quote was the most cost competitive.
The councillor added that the town is actively keeping track of problematic waterlines across town.
“We have recognized different areas in the town that have had failures in the past,” said Winsor. “So, what Director (Robert) Stacey is doing is keeping a record of all that – how many times we’ve been back there, how many times we’ve repaired something, how many people are on that road, what is the cost involved, and so on, and we try to prioritize that and allocate money in every year’s budget for those purposes.”
To that end, Winsor said that council would like to accomplish even more around town, but their hands are tied financially.
“We would like to do more,” said Winsor. “We always want to do more, right? When we reviewed these quotes – and all the quotes, actually, compared to years past – there’s a noticeable increase. We’re all seeing it at the grocery store and at the gas pump, right? – and you can see it in these quotes, too. Those contractors have costs. Their materials costs have escalated, their fuel costs for mobilizing their equipment and operating their equipment, [the cost of] paying their personnel, and it’s getting more expensive to repair things. So, we want to do more, but it’s something to think about, for all of us, in our budget deliberations next fall for next year.”
Mayor Crawley added that when council approved the 2026 budget, no one could have anticipated the rise of fuel costs associated with the war in Iran.
“Unfortunately, that’s the situation we’re in right now,” said the mayor. “Everyone’s feeling it.”
Councillor Mable Tilley was absent from the meeting, but other than that the motion passed unanimously.