AMHERST - A local company will begin work almost immediately on the redesign of Victoria Square.
At a special meeting early Tuesday afternoon, Amherst town council approved a motion to award a tender to Maritech Construction Inc. for the project, which is part of the Centre First - Downtown Amherst Action Strategy.
Of the two bids received, Maritech was the lowest bid coming in at $1,050,000 plus HST, which was more than $500,000 less than that of Turf Masters Landscaping Inc.
Maritech's bid is $100,000 more than the town has budgeted for, however the chief administrative officer said funds are in the town's capital reserve if need be.
"We have a plan for financing the overage," said Greg Herrett. "Option A is to find savings in other capital projects that are going on in the downtown area. We are cautiously optimistic that that will manifest itself and we will find that."
He said the second option, which is also a worst-case scenario, is to use money from the reserve.
While Maritech is also busy working on the childcare centre at the Cumberland YMCA, Small questioned if the work would be done in the time the town is allowing.
Jason MacDonald, director of planning and development, said Maritech initialed a line signifying the work would be complete by the Nov. 1 deadline the town has in place.
The town also approved a motion awarding a tender to Crandall Engineering for the design and detailed construction drawings of the two gateway intersections into the downtown.
The tender is for the preliminary design to improve the intersections of Church and Albion streets, and LaPlanche and Lawrence streets.
Crandall Engineering's bid was for $35,950 plus HST and was well below the town's $50,000 budget.
