Repairs to Centre Street North seem poised to finally be near the top of the list of Sundre infrastructure increasingly in need of tender loving care.
The bulk of the work will not be complete until 2017, with finishing touches such as landscaping expected to be done in 2018. But residents who frequently commute that stretch of Centre Street will be relieved to know town officials are planning for the two-phase project.
However, council is still in the process of reviewing, prioritizing and finally adopting its capital budget, and has not officially approved the project yet.
The long-awaited rebuild to that part of the road, which has for more than a decade drastically deteriorated particularly between 9th and 12th avenues, was among several capital projects outlined on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at council chambers during a public engagement session, which was attended by roughly a dozen residents.
The undertaking had to be properly researched and prepared to account for the required underground service upgrades that would be needed to accommodate the impending improvements to the water treatment facility.
“Not only do you do the road, you have to do all the water and sewer pipes underneath,” said Mayor Terry Leslie.
“We have to make sure that we're looking down the road at what's necessary in the next 10 to 20 to 30 years, so that we're doing something once instead of spending your money doing it more than once.”
The cost to repair Centre Street North will be largely covered through grant funding as well as reserves that have been built up over the years, he said.
The first phase is estimated to cost about $2.2 million.
“What that does is that allows us to rip up the street, replace what's underground and then pave over,” said Vic Pirie, director of finance and administration.
In the longer run, as developers expand new subdivisions further north just beyond 12th Avenue, the town will be getting off-street levies that amount to about $2.2 million, which will allow the construction of a four-lane road there, he told the Round Up after the meeting.
“That won't happen until we see the development in the north. But for next year, we will be ripping out the infrastructure that's there, replacing and enlarging the water and sewer infrastructure down there to allow that development to go further north, because that's where the growth will come. We have had interest from developers but part of the problem is we haven't been able to support the development because we haven't had the infrastructure.”
That's all poised to change, he said.
Also discussed at the open house were potential plans to improve the condition of the back alley between Second and Third streets North on Main Avenue, which is a shared conduit among numerous businesses and a condominium complex.
David Lewis, president of the Foothills Terrace Condominium Association, said he appreciated the effort town officials made to openly present information on the capital budget, and that he felt the concerns raised about the back alley were at the very least being more seriously considered.
“It's very enlightening how they're working. And they were willing to sit down and talk to us on a one-to-one basis — it's good,” he said.
“The main thing is we can talk about it.”
Even if the back alley does not have a rapid remedy, Lewis was nevertheless glad that potential solutions such as an enforced speed limit are being investigated.
The most cost intensive capital project earmarked for the coming years is of course the wastewater treatment facility, which has all but reached its capacity to accommodate additional growth.
Additionally, the open air, three-cell lagoon will need to be upgraded to ensure water discharged back into the Red Deer River meets new federal and provincial standards.
Officials estimate that project will cost as much as $14 million-plus.
A question mark unfortunately dauntingly looms in the air like a 100-ton pendulum swinging back and forth. The kind of grant funding the town is approved for will mean the difference between a 60-40 or 90-10 financing arrangement. Of course officials are striving to obtain as much government assistance as possible and hope to qualify for grant programs that would reduce the town's portion of the project's cost to 10 per cent.
The determining factor between whether the funding will be approved at 90 per cent covered by grants rather than only 60 per cent is if government officials decide Sundre's wastewater treatment facility is a regional service hub. That's a case the mayor makes confidently.
“That sewer treatment plant looks after trucks that come in from all over — from Clearwater County, Mountain View County, outside the Town of Sundre,” said Leslie.
“There's funding that could mean that there's not a whole lot of change in how much money you have to pay per month for those (wastewater) rates.”
But if the government is not convinced that the sewage lagoon is a regional service provider, Sundre could potentially find itself having to foot 40 per cent of the project's cost.
Anyone who is interested in taking a look at the draft capital plan and the projects it outlines can find the document by visiting the Town of Sundre's website in the council minutes for the Oct. 11 workshop, which is found under the “government” tab.
“Once council approves the five-year capital plan, then we'll be putting that document up specifically on the website,” said Pirie.
