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Nov 25, 2009
Where's the fund to replace 1,260 lifts in future?
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I REFER to Monday's report, 'Town council grades: Tampines residents get a peek' and applaud the Tampines Town Council for scoring top marks for its lifts in the preliminary results of the Town Councils Management Report.
The town council did not reveal how much it spent on maintaining these lifts, nor give an estimate of their future replacement cost and, more importantly, how this cost will be financed.
The council now has about 1,260 lifts and the replacement cycle is 28 years. The council keeps a sinking fund for such replacement works. At the current replacement cost of $100,000 for a lift, the council needs $126 million to replace all its lifts.
But according to its latest financial statement, it has only $32 million in its residential sinking fund, an annual contribution of $11.8 million and an annual expenditure of $24 million.
Considering this, the town council should tell its residents how it intends to fund the future lift replacements.
With advancement in technology, there is no doubt that lift performance is getting better and better, but there is a price to pay for the maintenance and replacement. Will future generations bear the burden of paying for these costs?
Eilleen Tan (Ms)
Where's the fund to replace 1,260 lifts in future?
<!-- by line --><!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
I REFER to Monday's report, 'Town council grades: Tampines residents get a peek' and applaud the Tampines Town Council for scoring top marks for its lifts in the preliminary results of the Town Councils Management Report.
The town council did not reveal how much it spent on maintaining these lifts, nor give an estimate of their future replacement cost and, more importantly, how this cost will be financed.
The council now has about 1,260 lifts and the replacement cycle is 28 years. The council keeps a sinking fund for such replacement works. At the current replacement cost of $100,000 for a lift, the council needs $126 million to replace all its lifts.
But according to its latest financial statement, it has only $32 million in its residential sinking fund, an annual contribution of $11.8 million and an annual expenditure of $24 million.
Considering this, the town council should tell its residents how it intends to fund the future lift replacements.
With advancement in technology, there is no doubt that lift performance is getting better and better, but there is a price to pay for the maintenance and replacement. Will future generations bear the burden of paying for these costs?
Eilleen Tan (Ms)