Neepawa comes to an agreement with Manitoba Water Services Board
- Details
- Published on Thursday, July 6, 2017
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
Several significant infrastructure projects in Neepawa are about to receive new technical and financial assistance. On Tuesday, July 4, town council authorized the mayor and CEO to enter into a pair of agreements with the Manitoba Water Service Board (MWSB). The first of these deals will assist with feasibility plans for north end water and reservoir upgrades. Those improvements include two separate projects: the extension of a water main to the Town’s north boundary and the design and construction of additional reservoir storage.
This agreement will also cover any other water distribution system upgrades that are required to meet future growth. The deal is coordinated as a 50/50 cost sharing split, up to $6 million.
Mayor Adrian de Groot was pleased with the agreement, noting that these proposed improvements will be a true positive for the community.
“We’re getting close to total capacity of our reservoirs, in relation to our [water] tower and the reservoir that we have at the water treatment plant. So, with the demand and with the growth projections we have, [the Town] needs to start looking at how we expand our reservoir capacity, in order to have more treated water, potable water available,” said de Groot. “The north end expansion is directly related to the application of a request from the RM of Rosedale to tie into our network. So, what we’re looking at is the opportunity to increase our internal boundary capacity within Neepawa, in order to look at future expansion at the north end. As well as, potentially the north west side of our boundary. So, rather than just designing for the supplied water to the Rural Municipality of Rosedale, per se, now that we’re doing that, maybe instead of a six inch line, let’s go to a 12” inch line, so that we can tee off of it in order to do that north end expansion.”
At that same meeting, council authorized a similar deal with the Water Services Board for the wastewater lagoon upgrades, which were approved in the 2017 financial budget. This portion of the agreement will also be a 50/50 cost split, up to $3 million. It will be directed towards the design stage of the project.
The Town had previously taken money out of its reserve fund to cover this project. These offsetting revenues from the Water Services Board ensure the cost of the improvements are not so heavily burdened upon the Town. A pilot program examining the requirements of the proposal, are still being finalized, so the final design and therefore, the final cost, is not yet known.
