Sidney &
Saanich
Peninsula

Audited Circulation 12,933

An Island Publishers Newspaper

Wednesday February 14,1990 35¢

Racing results Al4

BUSINESS Al4
CLASSIFIED —«—-&B
COMMUNITY  A21
OPINION AG
OUTDOORS A18
SPORTS B3
CALENDAR A21
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GARDENING  A12

TOP OF THE PILE A7

NASH. AT
HAMPSON A18
GRENBY Ald
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Sanscha news awaited before town
considers go-ahead on port proposal

by George Lee
The Review

The Town of Sidney would jeo-
pardize the community’s chances
for a waterfront hall by telling
Sidney Pier Holdings Ltd. to build
without the idea in mind, alder-
men said Monday.

Council voted to leave any dead-
line extention on a major water-
front building in abeyance until
the fate of Sanscha Hall, at the
comer of Beacon Avenue and the
Pat Bay Highway, is more clear.

Buta dissenting voter said coun-
cil has been too secretive in port
dealings and the developer should
be told to “get cracking on the
original proposal.”

Ald. John Calder said a town
hall could be added later if neces-
Sary, after a redesign.

But mover Ald. Tim Chad said
that would add ‘‘astronomical
costs’ and make the project unre-
alistic,,

Council awaits an indication on
whether Transportation and High-
ways intends to expropriate the
Memorial Park Society’s land to
build an interchange.

The motion comes in the wake
of an in-camera meeting last week
in which Sidney Pier told alder-

_ men of a plan to make the port site

of a $4.2 million conference centre
and community hall.

Sidney Pier has an existing
building permit to construct a
building with a 14,000 square feet
of floor area, plus a 1,400-square-
foot mezzanine area.

But a building proposed to
replace it would connect to a
major hotel on adjoining property,
next to the whale museum.

It would have 15,000 square feet
on the ground floor, another
10,000 on a second floor. On the
ground floor, 5,000 square feet,
open through the roof, would pro-
vide an ocean entrance for a
proposed civic and conference
centre.

Calder said Highways’ word
will be “just the beginning of a
long process and I don’t think we
have time.”

Information about the Feb. 5
meeting with council was reported
in the Times-Colonist, but the
information wasn’t volunteered by
council.

Said Calder: “One of the main
reasons projects of this kind fail is
the secrecy that surrounds them.
There’s no need for it.”

However, Mayor Norma Sealey
said the meeting was held in-
camera to uphold a confidence
with the Memorial Park Society.

A document came to Sealey
marked confidential from the
society, she said.

A committee of the society, the
town and Sidney Pier Holdings has
been investigating a waterfront
community hall since last year.

“IT was not prepared to betray the
confidence of the Memonal Park

Society. And council met earlier in -

Continued on Page A2

District buys
tractor without
written Tender call

by Valorie Lennox
The Review

A verbal invitation to tender on
a $50,000-plus tractor and mower
for North Saanich has two dealers

questioning the municipality’s
business practice.

Both dealers say they submitted
bids that matched municipal
requirements — and were unde-
rbid by a tender for a different type
of equipment.

“We were all told something
different,” said John Grieve of
Grieve Motors on East Saanich
Road.

Verbal tenders sting dealers

“If somebody knows what they
want, send out an invitation to
tender so everyone is bidding on
apples or everyone is bidding on
oranges, but don’t get an apple, an
orange or a banana in the basket.”

Dealers were verbally invited to
submit tenders for the equivalent
of a two-wheel drive tractor and
Bamford mower, said North Saa-
nich municipal engineer Igor
Zahynacz. $

“We don’t use written invita-
tions for something like this,”
Zahynacz said.

The dealers were contacted by
public works foreman George
Hartshorne.

The successful low bid of
$58,166.44, from Rollins Machin-
ery Ltd. of Victoria, was for a
rear-mounted Bamford mower and
two-wheel drive tractor.

Grieve offered a 76 horsepower,
two-wheel drive tractor with a
side-mounted mower for
$67,519.88.

Grieve understood the munici-
pality’s minimum requirements
were the powerful tractor and side-
mounted mower.

“What they got in the end was
not what they asked for,’ Grieve
said. :

Aubrey Temblett of Ironhorse
Equipment in Duncan, thought
North Saanich wanted a four-
wheel drive tractor and side-
mounted mower.

His bid is recorded by the
municipality at $63,340.30.

Temblett said his company sub-

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