So Many Projects, So Little Funding!

Village councilors, key village staff members, and our engineers met together last week to discuss priorities and our project plans.

It became very obvious, very quickly that the number and costs of projects outnumbered the funds available.

Funding for the upgrading of village projects, facilities and infrastructure comes from three main sources; property taxes, provincial grants, and federal grants.

Provincial Municipal Sustainability Initiative grants for 2014 have now been received. Last year's MSI grants for 2015 are expected soon. Council's job is to allocate funding for a number of projects within the village.

Here are the projects being considered [in no particular order];

• Upgrading and paving streets, especially those plagued by potholes.
• Replacing deteriorating water lines, and valves.
• Replacing crumbling sanitary sewer lines.
• Replacing crumbling sidewalks, or installing new sidewalks were none exist now.
• The upgrading of village owned facilities such as the playgrounds, the community hall, the fire hall, the arena, the library – play school – community links building, the sewage lagoon, the public works complex, and the Village Office.  (Improvements to some of these facilities such as the fire hall and the arena are accomplished by groups using and operating those facilities. Village Council is hugely grateful for the contribution of those groups, but those facilities are still the property of the village.)
• The construction of a new "Welcome Centre" in Legacy Park. (this is subject to a federal grant application)
• Rebuilding the second block of Main Street from First Avenue to Second Avenue to resemble the first phase between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
• Rebuilding the road bridges over the drainage channel.

We have already approved two projects;  the upgrading of our sewage lagoon system and the replacement of the shingles on the Village Office.

Last week, we created a tentative priority list based on information we had.  We asked our engineers to do a more accurate cost assessment on a couple of  other projects. We're hoping to accept the final priority list at our next Council meeting.

At that time, we also hope to have a couple of "shovel ready" projects on our desk just in case the federal government follows through on its promise to help fund municipal infrastructure upgrades across the country.  Stay tuned.