The Village of Telkwa met last week with plenty on the agenda.
The meeting kicked off with an update from Northern Health. Mayor Darcy Repen invited Health Services Administrator Cormac Hikisch to speak so council had an opportunity to ask questions and be informed of everything is that is going on within the medical community that affects Telkwa. Hikisch spoke about the project to replace Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace.
“It is a pretty critical time. It looks like we have the go-ahead for the hospital in Terrace, of course we are all in that funding pool and that will have an impact on our taxation this year,” said Repen.
Other topics that were discussed included new initiatives with telehealth and new hirings— including a full-time psychiatrist in the Bulkley Valley, seniors care and the concern with mammography service in Smithers possibly ending.
Also at the council meeting, an update on grant submissions was given. The Village is applying for two new grants to the UBCM fund. An application is going in for the new water tower project as well as one for sewer treatment upgrades. The UBCM fund is a 100 per cent covered grant.
The grant application for the water tower will include new information and new pricing. Council is not worried that a second application for the sewer treatment will take away from the water tower application.
Over the past year, a third party consultant has been hired to review and investigate the core infrastructure system, including the water system.
“What we are learning … no surprise, Telkwa has been historically underfunded so some of the work that should have been done has fallen to the wayside because of lack of funding and lack of staffing,” said Repen. “It might sound like bad news, but I think it is good news that we are shedding some light on really what needs to be done and how urgently it needs to be done.”
The Village is also expecting to hear from their application to the original Clean Water and Waste Water Fund for about $200,000. This would fund the engineering and archaeology assessment for the water tower project.
“We are optimistic that we will hear positive news about that in the next couple of days and then we can get going on that this summer and get it done this summer. And then hopefully we’ll get positive news about the UBCM grants in the fall and that will enable us to get a contractor and break ground and build a water tower in the summer of 2018,” added Repen.
The Village recently turned down a grant from the Build Canada Fund because of the funding formula. That grant would require Telkwa to come up with one-third of the total price tag of the water tower project, which is around a million dollars … and which the Village insists it can’t afford.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda was a resident asking to build a community garden. The applicant wants to create a public flower bed with planters at Aldermere Ridge. Rhonda Burnett presented a neighbourhood survey with support and a plan for the space beside the exercise park. While council was supportive of the idea, it was turned down because of lack of water in the village, and more specifically in that neighbourhood.
“That is a crazy thing for a village, that literally can’t even engage in a citizen spurred and funded project like that because we really can’t afford to have any more water usage in that area,” said Repen. “That paints a clear picture of how strained we are.”
Unless the proponent can come up with a really good alternative way of getting water there, it is off the table for now, added Repen.