BONNYVILLE – Sidewalks, storm sewer upgrades, and replacing the hospital area sanitary line are projects Town of Bonnyville council decided to submit for municipal stimulus funding from the province.
“Through the recently announced municipal stimulus program, the province is providing capital infrastructure funds to municipalities with the purpose to create local jobs,” explained CAO Bill Rogers during council’s Aug. 25 meeting. “Based on their per capita funding formula, the Town of Bonnyville should be eligible for about $763,000 under this program.”
Administration estimated the hospital area sanitary line replacement would come in around $135,000, the storm sewer upgrades for 52nd Ave. would ring in around $130,000, and the construction of sidewalks in areas of town where there currently aren’t any was estimated at $500,000.
Rogers noted if the projects come in over the amount provided through the stimulus program, the town would need to cover the overage.
Eligible projects through the provincial funding need to be for the betterment, rehabilitation, or non-routine maintenance of bridges, roads, water and wastewater systems, along with recreation projects. Construction must be started in 2020 or 2021 and all funding must be spent by the end of next year.
“Funding was also limited to projects that wouldn’t go forward without support from the stimulus program,” noted Rogers. “If we had currently funded projects in our capital budget for this year that we’re just waiting to go ahead on those, they would have to be put aside and not considered under this program.”
When town administration went over projects that would qualify, Rogers said the hospital area sanitary line replacement came to mind because of the significant impact it has on residents.
“This one has been the subject of multiple insurance claims from residents in the area in recent years and it’s a high priority for our public works staff because they’re always over doing some work trying to maintain what’s there and it badly needs to be replaced.”
Flooding issues that have faced 52nd Ave., a cul de sac located on the west end of town, also came to the top of the list.
“Upgrading the drainage pipe in the area would help drainage concerns of these residents and the project was originally envisioned as part of a much larger project, about $2-million, to upgrade the storm drains in the area. We think doing this, it would phase into the future expansion of the larger project for the whole west end and would be a good first phase we think to start and get residents of that 52nd Ave. cul de sac some relief,” detailed Rogers.
The project with the biggest price tag was the construction of sidewalks throughout town on streets that currently don’t have one. The plan would see approximately 1.5-kilometres of sidewalks built throughout Bonnyville to ensure pedestrian safety.
“The sidewalks are something that is used year-round,” noted Coun. Chad Colbourne. “I think our residents have spoken about sidewalks several times and I think it’s an opportunity for us to do some simple work with some free money, I guess one would say, to get some sidewalks put in if we assess the areas we need those sidewalks first and look at which area could use them.”
Coun. Brian McEvoy agreed, “We really have two towns separated by a bunch of missing sidewalks. We just went through our strategic planning session and we talked about safety, recreation, and all the rest of it. We’re missing a big connection that would tie the whole town together.”
Administration will be submitting council’s choices for the program ahead of the Oct. 1, 2020 deadline to apply funding.
