OLDS - The bulk of the town’s spending on capital projects in 2020 will go towards a new operations centre.
Next year’s capital budget was approved on Dec. 9. Approximately $8 million of the $12,292,900 budget will be spent on building a new all-in-one operations centre off 70th Avenue where the wastewater treatment area was. A further couple of million will be spent on reclaiming the land it is on and servicing it.
The town has borrowed approximately $10.7 million to complete the project.
“I know times are tough but this is a necessity that is long overdue,” said Mayor Mike Muzychka.
“We’ve been running out of several buildings that are basically crumbling around us because we’ve known we’ve had this item on our 10-year capital plan for quite a few years, 10 years actually. And we’ve pushed it off a couple of years but it’s to the point of critical,” said Muzychka.
A variety of operations staff work out of three buildings right now and equipment like graders that should be housed inside to extend their life expectancy are parked outside because of lack of facilities, he said.
The new operations centre would replace all three buildings and house operations staff in one place. The three vacated sites would then be disposed of.
The new ops centre will also house equipment and vehicles, sand and salt for roads, materials for road repairs, pipes for the water system and garbage bins.
Construction on the new facility is expected to start in the spring, weather permitting, said Muzychka.
“And it will allow us to grow,” he added. “We’re not building a building that’s going to suit us today, we’re looking at 25 and 30 years…so we won’t need to build another ops centre in 10 years because we’ve outgrown it.”
The 2020 capital budget includes:
• $2.31 million for Municipal Improvement program
• $0.70 million for water and sewer infrastructure
• $0.20 million for recreation and parks projects
• $0.20 million for vehicles and other equipment
• $8.48 million for building upgrades and new building
• $0.40 million for land purchases
