District of Clearwater will spend about $4 million on public works projects this year, according to chief administrative officer Leslie Groulx.
“We’ve got lots of work coming down the pipe,” she said.
Much of that money will come from federal gas taxes and other grants, rather than from local property taxpayers.
As reported in last week’s Times, the federal and provincial governments are contributing $1.75 million towards the cost of a new well for Clearwater. The municipality will be contributing $360,000 towards the $2.1 million project.
Also as reported previously, Clearwater is to receive a $240,000 BC Rural Dividend grant to be used for a multi-use trail along Park Drive from the hospital to near the shopping centre as well as for mountain bike trails near Candle Creek.
The Times also has reported that town council approved spending $28,000 to upgrade the drainage on Clearwater Station Road adjacent to Home Hardware and Aspen Auto Parts.
Another drainage project that is in the works is to get rid of a puddle that can form on Blair Place, Groulx said.
There also will be some work on improving the drainage on Robson Street.
This would tie in work that needs to be done for the proposed affordable housing apartment building to be constructed on Park Drive next to the library.
Coming up as well is the fifth of six phases to upgrade the municipality’s SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system. This phase will focus on an alarm system for the sewage lift stations so they can be monitored by cellphone.
District of Clearwater recently put out a request for proposal for leak detection. Although some progress has been made, the municipality still uses far more water than it should, based on its population.
Also coming up are updates to District of Clearwater’s water and sewer bylaws, as well as its subdivision servicing bylaws. These date back to the former Clearwater Improvement District and/or come from the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, she said, and need to be brought up to current standards.
All of the projects are based on strategic planning that town council and staff have done beforehand, Groulx added.
