By Mark Squibb
Mount Pearl council earlier this month approved a new Eco-Chill System service contract.
Councillor Bill Antle said in June 2020, the City entered into a five-year sole source, customer service agreement with CIMCO for routine and preventative maintenance of both the Glacier’s refrigeration system and the Summit Centre’s heat pump and heat exchange system, which operate onCIMCO machinery.
That contract was set to expire in June, and staff negotiated a new five-year contract at an annual cost of $54,423, HST included, with an annual cost inflation of two percent, which they recommended council approve.
Antle said while the City doesn’t often approve sole source contracts –in other words, bids from a single supplier – CIMCO recently proved its worth.
“We had a little incident at the Glacier a couple weeks ago, and we called this company, and they dropped one of the jobs they were doing and within moments they came to the City of Mount Pearl and went to work right away, which is above and beyond,” said Antle. “It’s really great to see a company do this.”
Antle said that CIMCO and staff worked together to resolve the matter, and that within 17 hours the Glacier was up and running once again without any loss of ice.
Mayor Dave Aker added that in regard to the sole source clause of the contract, the City’s hands are tied in that there are no third parties that maintain CIMCO products.
Planning director Scott Batt concurred with Aker’s assessment.
“As these are CIMCO products, to keep up the warranty and to keep this very important piece of equipment operating, it was deemed that going with CIMCO was the prudent choice here,” said Batt.
Council unanimously approved the new contract. The new deal will expire June 30, 2030.
