Long-time Nanaimo councillor regrets Colliery Dam decision
NANAIMO — Veteran Nanaimo city councillor Jim Kipp calls his vote agreeing to the installation of the auxiliary spillway on the lower Colliery Dam one of the worst of his life.
Kipp made the comment at the Oct. 3 council meeting while discussing a staff report outlining all of the costs related to the Colliery Dams. Over the span of about 30 minutes an exasperated Kipp ranted on several occasions about wasted money and the poor job the city and council did handling what he calls a “boondoggle” of a situation.
“I’ll never get sucked in again to vote for the team vote. It was one of the worst things I did…a review of what was done, that’s what I was voting for that day,” said Kipp. “I went along with my team to try and reconcile, to try and get things done and I asked for a real independent investigation and I got squelched at every level.”
In July 2015 this council voted unanimously to build the spillway. The staff report shows all costs related to the dams since 2012, including construction, engineering, Colliery Dams Select Committee and legal fees are $7.07-million. The final design and construction costs for the spillway itself are expected to be $4.4-million. In Oct. 2012 councillors originally voted in-camera to remove both of the dams entirely. At the time water resources manager Bill Sims said that decision would cost about $7-million.