The Village of Telkwa is getting some provincial and federal dollars it has been after for a long time.
Council announced at its July 21 regular meeting that the Village’s grant application for funding for the wastewater treatment plant and sanitary collection system rehabilitation project has been approved under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program - Rural and Northern Communities Program in the amount of $2,410,625.
The federal contribution is $1,446,35 and the province kicks in the rest at $964,250.
“We have been trying to get grant funding for the last number of years,” said Mayor Brad Layton. “When we were out there looking, we were making sure that we had portions set aside in our budget. But we are happy to say this is 100 per cent funded and we don’t have to take anything out of our reserves to carry on with the improvement project and repairs on our sewer system.”
The project will involve the rehabilitation of the lagoon and ex-filtration system; improvements to the collection system; inspection and repair of manholes and sanitary lines; installation of flow metres, stand by generators and a supervisory control and data acquisition system in sanitary lift stations; repairs to berms, cell curtains and the ex-filtration basin; and installation of perimeter fencing.
“The bulk of the work at the wastewater treatment plant will be completed in 2021, with work on the sanitary collection system starting later this year and continuing until 2023,” said Director of Operations Lev Hartfeil.
Mayor Layton and CAO Debbie Joujan both praised staff for their work in getting the grant.
“Kudos to staff for all of the hard work on grant applications for the last several years, we’ve managed to secure quite a bit of funding as a result and it has really been a team effort,” said Joujan.