City Council Votes to Refer Options for City’s Sewage Pumping Station Replacement Until Next Council Meeting

Brockville – Brockville City Council voted to refer the decision on the options for the replacement of the city’s sewage pumping station replacement in Centeen Park at this past Tuesday’s council meeting.

In the narrow 5-4 vote, councillor Jeff Earl put forward a referral motion asking for maybe a third option at the east end of Centeen Park south of Ford Street, that may offer lower construction costs and less impact on the main area of Centeen.

He also asked staff if there could be a better rendering of the proposed building so citizens could have a better idea of what the building would look like.

City staff is recommending Option 1, which is considered a ‘traditional design’ which is less costly, smaller footprint and has less impact on the park.

At last week’s general committee meeting, they heard from Water Street resident Brockville businessman Gord Cameron that he favours Option 2, the larger footprint, more underground proposal and costlier option.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Peter Raabe, the city’s director of engineering and infrastructure said that option 2, the underground proposal with the large footprint would ‘essentially be unusable park space’. Although people could walk over it.

The motion to defer the decision to March 12 was tied at a 4-4 vote, with Mayor Wren making the deciding vote to refer to the next council meeting.

“I guess I’ll side with giving the public some time; I’m not so sure,” said Mayor Wren.

Councilor Earl along with councillors Cameron Wales, Mike Kalivas and Nathalie Lavergne voted in favour of the refer motion while councillors Katherine Hobbs, Phil Deery, Louise Severson, and Jane Fullarton voted against the motion.