Close to 1,000 additional homes in West Kelowna will be hooked onto the sanitary sewer system. The federal and provincial governments will contribute $6 million toward the project, it was confirmed Wednesday, bringing the cost per homeowner down to about $10,000. “I‘m thrilled that we‘ve got this support,” West Kelowna mayor Doug Findlater said. “This is the first major infrastructure improvement project we‘ll have on the go here,” he said. “It‘s been a top priority for our community.” The homes to be added to the sewer network, pending the support of property owners, are in Glenrosa, Lakeview Heights and around George Pringle Elementary School. With the provincial and federal support covering two-thirds of the project‘s cost, the charge per homeowner is considerably below what it would otherwise have been. Still, Findlater said there may be some opposition to the sewering project, which must be endorsed by at least 50 per cent of the affected property owners.
“But adding a sewer connection is cheaper than having to replace a septic field. It also adds value to your home to be on sewer, and it‘s better for the environment,” Findlater said. Sewers lines have been expanded into West Kelowna since the early 1990s. Assuming this project goes ahead, there will only be about 500 households left to be brought onto sewers. The West Kelowna sewer expansion is one of 41 infrastructure improvement projects to receive $110 million in provincial and federal funding. Funding applications for these projects were submitted last fall, so the money is not related to the new spending initiatives announced by Ottawa. “There will be other projects in the Okanagan to receive funding, I‘m sure,” said Kelowna Coun. Robert Hobson, who helped review applications as president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities. Projects under this program were for populations of less than 100,000.
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CASTANET: West Kelowna gets $6M sewer grant
The District of West Kelowna is one of the first beneficiaries of a $110 million provincial grant program. The municipality announced Wednesday afternoon it has received $6 million for upcoming sewer projects. West Kelowna received the entire amount of a grant it asked for in order to complete seven phases of a 10-phase sewer servicing strategy. A press release issued late Wednesday says the funding means 961 homes within the seven phases will pay $10,193 for the installation of sewer, providing petitions to pursue the sewer projects are approved. The $10,193 does not include the cost of individual home hook-up to the sewer. “Council was hoping for this great news when we applied. In retrospect, it was a good decision to break the entire sewer strategy into different funding applications. It increases our chances of obtaining more funding for this important infrastructure project,” says Mayor Doug Findlater. “If we had kept the entire project under one funding application, we were looking at costs of up to $12,500 per home, not including individual hook up and the feedback we were getting was not positive in light of this.”
The projects receiving funding include:
- Glenrosa Phase 2 – Ranch Road
- Lakeview Phase 2/6 – Hayman Road/Thacker Road
- Glenrosa Phase 7 – Pineridge Place
- Applegreen Court/Cameron Road
- Glenrosa Phase 3 – Dunbarton Road
- Lakeview Phase 7 – Boucherie Road North
- Glenrosa Phase 4 – Webber Road North/McIver Road.
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