Keeping Abbotsford’s recreation facilities clean and its bathrooms stocked with toilet paper and paper towel is a six-figure task that isn’t as simple as it may sound, council was recently told.
The city will spend $114,118 on cleaning products and sanitary paper supplies each of the next three years, after council approved the selection of a supplier. That supplier – A & G Supply – had provided the highest quote to the city, coming in $13,000 more than the second-best option, but staff said the company’s complete bid and its track-record, tipped the scales in its favour.
“It’s not just about toilet paper and paper towel,” acting parks, recreation and culture general manager Kurt Holden told council. He noted that the city requires some 70 cleaning products to keep pool decks, shower floors and other surfaces shining.
“It’s a little more complex than one might imagine,” Houlden said. “Some products just don’t stand up to what we need.”
He said A & G was the only supplier of one particularly useful product, and that it had a solid track record with the city when it came to responding to requests.
“You can imagine running high-volume rec facilities and the like, making sure we have the right amount of inventory of the time we need it, is quite critical,” he said. “We do not want to … run out of supplies.”