BONNYVILLE – The MD of Bonnyville is exploring possibilities for potable water supply to Cherry Grove.
Council voted in favour of conducting a feasibility study during their June 10 meeting, to see what can be done to provide water to Cherry Grove and the surrounding areas.
Abid Malik, general manager of infrastructure services, noted the Bonnyville Regional Water Services Commission’s business plan does state other areas could tap into the new regional waterline down the road.
“They’re saying that it can be taken up after stage one, and stage one is being constructed right now,” he told council. “There are no timelines mentioned there, it depends on our municipality and what we want to do.”
Coun. Dana Swigart suggested doing a municipality-wide study in the coming years to see a timeline for adding other communities to the waterline.
“We’ve been telling people for several years that there’s a possibility that Glendon could get tied in and these other areas, so I think we at least have to have somebody out to do some kind of study. Is there federal funding available and can we get water to those areas because other municipalities do that?”
Council discussed the possibility of expanding the study to include other hamlets but ultimately decided to focus on Cherry Grove for now.
“It’s the largest hamlet in the MD and it would be nice for them to have a water source,” noted Coun. Ben Fadeyiw.
Coun. Ed Duchesne agreed, “I think it will give us a lot of information for where to go on our next processes and I think we should just stick with this one for now. Once we get all the information from there, go to Glendon or La Corey… This is a good start and I think that’s where we should go.”
Once the feasibility study is completed, it could assist council in sharing information with other residents that want to tap into the line.
“I’m getting some requests from people that are now in between Fort Kent and Bonnyville that would like to have some information regarding tying into the 24-inch line,” noted Coun. Marc Jubinville. “I think (Cherry Grove) is where we have to focus the study for now… if we look beyond that, it’s just going to go on and on.”
The topic came to council as the project wasn’t included in the 2020 budget, and administration wasn’t sure of how much it would cost.
“We can draft a terms of reference, get some proposals, and based on that, we’ll pick the best proposal and come back to council for a motion to allocate funding so that study can start,” Malik detailed.
