The City of Merritt is moving forward with its parks and recreation master plan, which it plans to have compete by next spring.
At its regular meeting on July 14, city council approved awarding the contract to develop the plan to Erik Lees and Associates for $54,908 before taxes.
The 2015 budget set aside $55,000 for this plan, which is to act as the guiding document for the development of any parks or recreation, cultural and parks services for the next decade.
The parks and recreation plan is a new one for the City of Merritt.
The city received ten bids for the master plan contract.
Eight of the ten bids were between $53,200 and $54,977, while one came in below that range at $49,150 and another even lower at $32,750.
City of Merritt leisure services manager Larry Plotnikoff told council $55,000 is a bit on the low end when it comes to this type of master plan for a city of Merritt’s size, but expects to get a good, quality plan out of this bid.
Work on the plan will pick up considerably in the fall, with the expectation that it will be complete by April 2016.
A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2015
