Funding is now in place for the Town of Sexsmith to add nearly a dozen new projects to its stormwater flood mitigation infrastructure. Mayor Kate Potter says the $1,357,624 from Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program grants will help put shovels in the ground and will add to $1.1 million in funding already committed by the provincial government.
“It’s been a long time in coming; previous councils have worked on this same project, and applied for similar grants and unfortunately were not successful.”
With the overarching construction plans including between nine and 12 individual mitigation projects, Potter says the work will help stormwater flow better throughout the town.
Potter says one of the bigger projects will be the building of a berm between the wetlands and the creek on the north side of Sexsmith. She adds another will help bolster erosion protection the two water reservoirs, the main source of drinking water for the region.
She explains every spring, or when the town gets heavy water, those wetlands overflow into the creek, which simply causes more work for crews.
“We are hopeful that next spring we have a reprieve, but we do have our contingency plan in place and made some adjustments. You never know, especially with nature, what’s going to be coming down the pipe but you always have to be ready for that.”
Sexsmith town council has also approved a borrowing bylaw, which will allow them to borrow up to $1,000,000 which can be used as the municipal portion of a contingency budget on the project. Potter says the hope is to get the engineering aspect of the project finished up through the winter months, with construction ideally beginning in Spring 2021.