Burns Lake council continues to investigate the feasibility of extending water and sewer services to the area east of town known as Industrial Site.
The Industrial Site and nearby residential area are currently not connected to the village’s water and sewer system.
The owners of Lino’s Sales and Service, a family business in the Industrial Site area, have been advocating for the extension of these services for the past 20 years.
READ MORE: Will the industrial site have sewerage?
“This change is long overdue,” said Gina Strimbold, who’s part of the family business, last year. “It’s not nice to be included in the village and not be included in all the services.”
And they are not alone, according to Val Anderson, Burns Lake’s economic development officer. Anderson said most of the business owners in the Industrial Site and nearby area complained about the lack of water and sewer services during a consultation she conducted in 2016.
Council included $7500 in last year’s budget so that L. & M. Engineering could conduct a feasibility study. Although the company had originally prepared a feasibility study with the same purpose in 2001, the study has now been updated to reflect project costs in 2017 dollars.
L. & M. Engineering was also asked to prepare an additional report with an alternate route which would have the water and sewer lines come down through the 50 hectares of land owned by the municipality known as Village Heights. This would allow for the development of a future subdivision, as well as servicing the Industrial Site.
According to a village staff report, the estimated total amount of new residential lots that could be created - based on a total area of 50 hectares in Village Heights - is 360 lots. This would allow nine hectares for roads and four hectares for parks/open space, and lot sizes to be one quarter acre in size (approximately 10,500 square feet).
Council has now been given two options.
The first option would be to re-route the water and sewer through the Village Heights development area and then to the Industrial Site. The total project cost for this option would be approximately $4.7 million, which includes a sewer system cost of $2.06 million and a water system cost of $2.3 million.
Option two would be to run the water and sewer as per the original study, bypassing the Village Heights development area. The total project cost for this option would be $4.2 million, which includes a sewer system cost of $1.8 million and a water system cost of $2.3 million.
The proposed routes have areas where directional drilling would be required under roads and creeks that would require approval from the Ministry of Environment. Some of the water and sewer lines would need to be installed off the shoulder of Hwy. 16 and would also need regulatory approval.
When asked what the next step is, Burns Lake Mayor Chris Beach said council will now include this information for discussion during their annual strategic planning session.
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