CREMONA - The Village of Cremona council has approved a joint project with Mountain View County to construct a bulk water station in the village.
The move came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The intermunicipal collaborative committee, made up of county and village representatives, had decided earlier that a bulk station would be beneficial to both the village and county, village CAO Luana Smith said in a briefing note to council.
The station will be used by farmers, local and area businesses, and others to take on water.
The station will be located at the current pumping house at 1st Street East and 1st Avenue East, across from the village office.
“After discussions with the village’s public works foreman, it was decided to locate the station at the current pumphouse and save costs relating to infrastructure and all the costs associated with a stand-alone insulated building,” Smith said.
“By having the location at the pumphouse, the costs would be reduced by more than $14,000.”
The county will be contributing $80,000 towards the project, with the village picking up any additional costs. The total project cost has been estimated at $90,000, she said.
The village will use 2018 federal gas tax funds to help cover its portion of the costs.
Bulk water is currently provided in the first bay of the fire hall, where access is only available during business hours or if a public works employee is present during non-business hours, she said.
Work on the station is expected to get underway this summer and be completed this year.
In other council news, council has approved a drainage ditch project on the west side of 1st Street West from the curling rink to Highway 580.
The move also came by way of motion at the recent council meeting.
“The ditch west of the post office is starting to erode and something needs to be done to rectify the situation,” Smith said in a briefing note.
Councillors voted to approve a project that will see culverts dug up and replaced from the curling rink south, under the intersection of 1st Avenue and being only one line rather than two all the way to Railway Avenue.
The project cost has been estimated at $30,000, with the money coming from either the provincial municipal sustainability initiative program or federal gas tax funding.
Meanwhile, council has been given an update on plans to spend new provincial funding to flood-proof the municipality’s water wells. The review also came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
Cremona’s water wells are located just outside the village in Mountain View County. The wells are at risk of flood because the well stacks are close to ground level.
Mountain View County, which is the emergency management agency for the village, applied to use $60,000 recently made available through the Alberta Municipal Affairs 2018 Flood Readiness Initiative to extend the stacks.
The province approved the proposal earlier this month.
In other news, the Cremona Municipal Library Board has a new chairperson.
Past chair Melissa Savage informed council in May that she was stepping down. The new chair is Patti Kirkwood, appointed by council motion on June 19.
