M.D. council continues quest in recreation master plan

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Vauxhall Advance

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

On the continuing journey to create a recreation master plan for the Municipal District of Taber, some financials have come in after Request for Proposals were submitted.

With the closing date on Feb. 1, council had a chance to discuss the proposals submitted during their regular meeting on Feb. 11.

The RFP criteria and requirements were graded by percentage and listed as timeline for recreation master plan (10 per cent), project plan (40 per cent), demonstration of expertise in the field of rural recreation master plan development (20 per cent), citizen engagement and consultation processes proposed (20 per cent) and references (10 per cent).

“We received four proposals — one from HarGroup Management Consultants, RC Strategies, Gen7 Environmental Solutions and Quantum Recreation. The way they scored were HarGroup 83, RC Strategies at 75, Gen7 Environmental at 71 and Quantum Recreation at 74,” said Bryan Badura, director of corporate services.

With up to $75,000 budgeted for the recreation master plan, HarGroup came in at $75,000, RC Strategies was $80,080, Gen7 was at $98,000 and Quantum Recreation was $52,479 though their price did not include the cost of public consultations/surveys.

“The only item of note from when the proposals were evaluated was just the timeframe to complete the study. There was some mention to conduct public consultations and what-not during that time period, is quite condensed. There was some question of if the project timeline should be expanded,” added Badura.

The timeline of completion was listed as prior to June 1, 2019, in the RFP.

“Going through the proposals, the HarGroup proposal spelt out basically that they would do all of this stuff. They would send out surveys and get them back and meet with the community groups. Some of the other ones indicated there would be more onus on the M.D. of Taber to conduct some of these things whether it be the survey or organize,” continued Badura.

With four proposals coming in, council asked how confident administration was to move forward.

“There is no sense in using $75,000 if we aren’t getting the questions answered that we are really looking for,” added Reeve Merrill Harris.

“Lots of other municipalities have conducted these recreation master plans to get some feedback on what the community wants or retention status of current facilities,” answered Badura.

Coun. Jen Crowson asked if it was important to continue forward or if there would be a benefit in holding off.

“I think it is important to continue on the path to take note of what you have in rural communities. Part of the RFD included consideration of other regional recreation and their costs so the information they will be collecting will be very valuable for discussions with not only our hamlet communities but other communities,” answered CAO Derrick Krizsan.

A motion was passed to proceed with HarGroup Management Consultants.