M.D. tables rec plan

By Cole Parkinson
Taber Times
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

After Municipal District of Taber council elected to pursue their own recreation plan, they were presented with a request for proposal draft.

During council’s regular meeting on October 23, councillors had a chance to review the draft and decide if they wanted to put it out for public tender.

Funding for the project would come from the 2019 municipal budget and is estimated to cost anywhere between $50,000 and $75,000.

In the draft, basic requirements for the bid include timeline (completed prior to June 1, 2019), a project plan, demonstrating expertise in the field of rural recreation master plan development, citizen engagement processes defined within the proposal and references.

“Is it typical when you do a request for proposal that we would be this explicit, or do the companies that normally do this sort of thing give us this kind of detail?” asked Coun. Jen Crowson.

Administration explained that in referencing with other municipalities, their document was in line with several others.

“The company who submitted the proposal to us and other municipalities for recreation plan information, these appear to be similar criteria to what these other municipalities are getting,” explained Derrick Krizsan, CAO for the M.D. of Taber.

With Councillors Brian Brewin, Murray Reynolds and John Turcato absent, Deputy Reeve Tamara Miyanaga expressed a desire to wait to hear input from all on council before proceeding.

“Since we don’t have John (Turcato) here and he sat through the town one, and there isn’t a rush to do this, do we want to wait for the other members of council to provide input?” she asked.

Turcato also sits on the Taber Recreation Board, and council was hoping he could provide some more detail.

Council also asked if changes could be made to the document after sending it out to tender or if it had to stay in its original state.

“I believe we do have a permission in there for amendments. Typically what happens is you issue an amendment to the RFP,” stated Krizsan. “You do have time to refine this document.”

With that in mind, M.D. of Taber council elected to table the discussion until next council meeting on November 13.