Councillor Alyssa Greene raised questions about the elevator

Tantramar Town Council has voted unanimously to award an $895,000 contract for the installation of an elevator at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.

“I feel this is a very important project and I feel the price is only going to go up if we delay it,” said Councillor Barry Hicks as he moved the motion on July 14th to award the contract to Maxim Construction, an employee-owned company with offices in Dartmouth and Saint John.

The other bid for the project, from Avant Garde Construction and Management of Dieppe, came in more than $41,000 higher at $936,390.

Before the vote, Councillor Alyssa Greene said she would support awarding the contract, but questioned why the town issued tenders excluding the option of installing a cheaper “limited-use/limited-application” LULA lift inside the building.

A LULA elevator has been described as a combination of a small commercial elevator and a wheelchair lift.

“It’s designed to be installed in low-rise buildings, particularly municipal buildings of two to three floors [and] has a lower footprint,” Greene said.

She referred to the previous council’s request for options, but added that the request for proposals issued to elevator companies said the project consisted of design and construction of a new elevator attached to the existing building.

“That would preclude designs that would have the LULA-lift that would be inside,” she said, adding that the town had removed opportunities for a lesser-cost option inside the building that would help people with disabilities.

‘Lowest-cost option’

Andrew Amos of Catalyst Consulting Engineers

Andrew Amos of Catalyst Consulting Engineers, who served as the town’s consultant on the elevator project, said that both companies told him during on-site inspections that the exterior elevator was the lowest-cost option.

Amos added that in his experience, a LULA lift would save up to $150,000.

“However, looking over the life span, we tend to find that those lifts are much more maintenance intensive, harder to get parts, fewer technicians that are qualified to work on them and they tend to be down a lot more and user satisfaction decreases tremendously.”

He said neither of the bidders suggested the LULA-type elevator.

“They felt that the standard elevator would give us the best investment over a 25-year investment horizon,” he added.

“It would be the lowest cost versus other options.”

In his written report to council, Jamie Ferguson, manager of active living and culture noted that the elevator was not included in the 2026 capital budget, but the $50,000 that Tantramar won this year in the Kraft Hockeyville award would help support the project.

To read Ferguson’s report including various questions raised by Councillor Greene, click here.