The Village of Telkwa is hoping to secure some funding to do an assessment of the municipal office building.
At the May 26 regular council meeting, councillors directed staff to apply for a grant opportunity from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Municipal Asset Management Program for the office building life cycle cost assessment and maintenance plan project.
If accepted, the grant would cover 80 per cent of the cost and the village would be on the hook for the remaining 20 per cent. The program is intended for smaller municipalities to be able to improve asset management practices. The village has previously benefited from this program to develop an asset management program for its sewer and water systems.
“We have a line in our budget for municipal office renovations,” Director of Operations Lev Hartfeil said. “So what I’m proposing is we get going on the assessment management plan with that budget and apply for the funding that can cover most of the costs of the assessment.”
Hartfeil said it will cost around $15,000 to to do the assessment and management plan, meaning if the grant application is approved, the village would only have to pay $3,000.
“A full assessment of the building, all the mechanical systems, look for asbestos, and coming up with a prioritized list of what needs to be done to protect the asset over the coming years and initial budget estimates that will be required. Part of it is also building it up to code and protecting our assets and taking care of it so it will be usable in the long term and making it more useable space for our staff and tenants,” he added.
Council was in full agreement to apply for the funding.
The village bought the meat co-op’s former building about ten years ago on the corner of Hankin and Highway 16 and has been slowly renovating it, which not only helped to clean up that corner of Telkwa but also created a village office after the former one was deemed unsafe. It also provides office space for other businesses.