Rimbey town hall decision “undermines local business”

Dear Editor:

Buy local. Support your local economy.

This is a phrase that has been heard from this local businessman time and time again. I agree with it wholeheartedly. I shop at both the Co-op and Rimbey Foods for my groceries, I buy my hardware needs at Home Hardware and Castle Builders, I support Roma’s Pizza and when we dine out and don’t want pizza, we frequent one of the fine restaurants in town. When I need a part for a computer I check with my local competition, RCR and the Source, before I am forced to shop out of town. I even send my customers to them when they show up looking for something I do not stock. We have donated our services to the Rimbey museum and saved their database on two separate occasions asking for only out-of-pocket expenses. In short, I am committed to my town and the colourful people within it.

Lately however that commitment has taken a very large hit.

Just prior to the town elections in 2010, the town office tendered quotes for the replacement of the town’s computer systems. The requested quote was extravagant, asking for very high-end equipment. They tendered this quote to several out of town IT companies as well as myself. I submitted my quote and never heard anything back from them. I inquired and was told that everything had been put on hold due to the election and budget uncertainty. So back to work I went.

Just recently my business received a phone call from the Rimbey Community Centre. They had a very important PC that handled their security systems become infected from a virus and wanted us to come out and fix it. Because of the importance of this particular PC and our commitment to this town we dropped everything we were doing and rushed out to fix it.

It was there that I was told the Town of Rimbey had gone ahead with the replacement of the office computers last November. I was further informed that they had a service contract with the company that replaced the PCs and I was being called in because they could not make it in on a late Friday afternoon because they were from out of town and the PC needed to be fixed as it controlled the heating and security systems of the building. We repaired the PC and took the bill to the town office for payment. I asked the lady why I had not been contacted to resubmit a quote to the office for the replacement of the server and office systems. I was told they had to rethink the extravagant quote that was tendered and they decided that they would only ask a few companies for quotes. I was not given a reason for not being one of the people asked to resubmit the quote.

The way this was done has left a very bad taste in this local businessman’s mouth and has taught him there is no local support for business within Rimbey from the powers that be. I was told by our mayor this policy of hiring outside business is being looked into and policies are being put in place to ensure local business gets a fair shake on bidding jobs in the future. It is a good first step to healing business relations, however this businessman wonders if it is too little, too late. It was explained to me council has no input on who is hired, but only on budget approval. I ask who will choose and after this fiasco and wonder about their integrity and commitment to their town.

I am now expected to purchase a business licence from the Town Office. Why should a local business support a local government oblivious to the needs of the local business of this town? I know this is the law of the land and this company will purchase one, but it still adds insult to injury.

Mark Steeves