A Vancouver Island-based consulting firm has been awarded two contracts each worth more than $100,000 by the District of Lantzville.
Lanarc Consulting, a firm specializing in community planning, will carry out the review of Lantzville’s official community plan and create its water master plan after councillors voted in favour of recommendations made by staff on Monday.
The Nanaimo-based company beat out four applicants for the official community plan contract, which has been budgeted at $100,000. Lanarc will be supported by Koers engineering.
Lanarc also managed to beat out the only other company that submitted a bid for the water master plan contract. The contract has a budgeted value of $60,000 in 2016 and $55,000 in 2017.
Councillors didn’t spend any time debating on whether they thought the Lanarc was the right company for the job, but Coun. Dot Neary did question district staff about the rationale for recommending the firm for both contracts.
“Was there any particular strength demonstrated by the recommended proponent that put it over and above the other applicants ... or was it just an all-around general preference?” she asked.
Frank Limshue, the district’s community planner, told councillors that there is a criteria and that each proposal is evaluated by himself as well as Brad McRae, the district’s chief administrative officer, and Fred Spears, the director of public works.
“We each reviewed it individually and we also did it as a team,” Limshue said.
What separated Lanarc from all of the other applicants was its level of detail in its proposals, its previous experience working with smaller municipalities and its knowledge of the local area, according to Limshue.
“It was very clear as we were evaluating the proposals and I think all three of us came to the same conclusion in terms of how we ranked the proposals. It was clear that Lanarc did put that extra mile in,” he said.
Limshue went on to say that price was not a factor in the decisions.
“It really came down to the other criteria that we put forward,” he said.