The City of Rossland is digging in on infrastructure fixes that are expected to cost $60 million over the next five years.
Mayor Andy Morel said the work involves repairing water, roads, retaining walls, and the local arena, but a utilities plan and an asset management plan identified the top priorities as replacing the main sewer line between Rossland and Warfield, at an expected cost of $6.7 million, and fixing retaining walls.
Morel said they will go to tender soon to replace a retaining wall on McLeod Avenue, a project expected to cost a little over $1 million. It will be paid for through reserves, because there are no grants available to support retaining wall replacements.
In general, though, the city hopes to pay for 70 per cent of its capital plan through grants from other levels of government. The remainder would come through borrowing and reserves.
Morel said it isn’t realistic to pay for projects like the sewer line to Warfield using local tax dollars.
“So if we don’t receive grants, we’ll have to put that project off until we do [receive them],” he said. “But it’ll remain on the top of the list as the highest priority for us. We’re looking at all options for grant funding, both federally and provincially.”
Morel said the situation Rossland finds itself in is the result of a few factors: previous councils either didn’t make infrastructure renewal a priority, or they simply didn’t know the scope of the problem because it hadn’t been investigated yet.
“Previous councils up until fairly recently didn’t have that knowledge, nor was it very palatable to start planning for asset management and infrastructure replacement,” Morel said. “It’s a very expensive endeavor and previous councils didn’t want to put that burden on taxpayers.”
Morel said the last couple of councils have made a more “concerted effort” to prioritize infrastructure replacement. He said the city now has a good handle on where its liabilities are.
According to a news release, the city currently carries $6.8 million in debt and spends about $547,000 annually on debt servicing. The draft capital plan calls for borrowing up to $10 million over the next five years.
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