Maintaining capital assets is alone insufficient when striving to entice investments in the municipality.
Aging infrastructure — from roads to underground services and basically everything in between — must also be upgraded to accommodate future growth.
Merely repairing such infrastructure to the same specs as the original installation would be akin to strapping a painfully restrictive corset around the community, effectively obstructing opportunities for new developments.
And as everyone knows, or should, stagnation is basically a euphemism for slow death.
So we at the Round Up applaud the Town of Sundre’s efforts to outline plans to not only repair crucial infrastructure but also include upgrades where needed to allow room for growth.
Main Avenue West — essentially from Corner Brook to Tim Hortons, or Sixth Street southwest to 10th Street West — has undeniably been in desperate need of repaving for some time.
The potholes along that stretch of one of Sundre’s main arteries were getting out of control.
Yet while certainly there is an argument to be made that the road should have received attention sooner, there is also wisdom in waiting for the right time.
Rushing to repave the road a couple of years ago would more than likely have meant neglecting equally important underground infrastructure upgrades. Factoring in considerations such as providing improved water pressure as well as storm and sanitary water drainage for Sundre’s southwest industrial district will also help to pave the way forward for new developments.
We can think of fewer wastes of taxpayer dollars than tearing up freshly laid asphalt to install pipes that should have been included in the plan to replace the street in the first place.
Better to wait an extra year or two to do the job right than short-sightedly jump the gun and squander limited tax dollars.
Of course once a major capital project gets underway, nearby businesses and residents stand to be impacted even though the municipality attempts to mitigate potential problems while balancing the need to provide safe working conditions for contractors.
Fortunately, according to Sundre’s operations manager Jim Hall, people typically tend to appreciate the benefit such projects provide for the whole community.
Hall also said he is pleased to see major capital projects such as Main Avenue moving ahead and looks forward to completing more because infrastructure upgrades are a critical part of the equation to generate commercial growth.
“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “Short-term pain for long-term gain.”
We could not agree more.
— Ducatel is the Round Up’s editor
