SHERBROOKE — The Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s has awarded engineering firm R.V. Anderson and Associates with a $24,920 contract to conduct a complete assessment of Sherbrooke’s water utility system.

Chief Administrative Officer Marissa Jordan made the recommendation to council last month after receiving two bids to conduct the work.

“As council knows we had issued a request for proposals to perform a systems assessment report,” she said. The [recommendation is] based on the criteria that we used to evaluate them, which included qualifications, methodology, and timeline.”

She confirmed that the project — which is mandated by the provincial government under its approval to operate regulation — will be covered by the municipality’s gas tax/capital reserve fund, “less any potential grants through the province.”

In January, Jordan told council “There has been some talk about the water utility and making it more efficient. Under the Department of Environmental approval to operate, there are some directives in there and one of them is to do a systems assessment report on the system. Staff are going to be issuing a tender. An external consultant has to do the work.”

At that meeting, Deputy Warden James Fuller asked if the water works was mandated by the provincial government. “A systems assessment report hasn’t been done in 10 years,” Jordan responded. “So, this will give us an action plan for what to do next. It’s not an [annual] thing.” She explained that under the Department of Environment and Climate Change’s approval to operate a water utility, “there are always directives that come out that.”

The assessment is expected to be completed in May.

Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal