Following the Sept. 12 Burns Lake council meeting. The village will be seeking grants to bring municipal services to the new subdivision of Village Heights.
In discussions with Joint Economic Development Initiative, it was determined that the Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program – Forestry Impacted Communities stream (REDIP-FIT) would be a potential funding source for the development of services to the entrance of Village Heights.
True Consulting, an engineering and land surveying company, developed the plan for Village Heights.
“Now that the housing accelerator fund application is complete and I know that it is going to be very competitive process but the hope is that we’re successful and if we are successful, we’re going to need more money to be able to complete the project so applying to fit seems to be a good fit,” said economic development officer Dolores Funk.
This grant would also augment a successful application to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) housing accelerator fund.
“The reason we’re applying for grants is, so that we can stack it onto the application housing accelerator fund in order to get funding for this project,” said Funk.
Funding for REDIP-FIT will provide $500,000.
The goal of REDIP-FIT is to undertake initiatives that support the development of a strong and diverse economy, including for industry, commerce, tourism, and a vibrant downtown.
There were two options which are:
Option one is to bring water, sewer, storm, roads and continuation of Third Avenue to the northeast and west corner of Village Heights.
Option two is to bring the road access in Aspen Street. Then water, sanitary sewer and storm would go down to Third Avenue, and again down to the cursory right away and tie into Blue Spruce.
Funk states that there are no costs attached at this point because there is no requirement for leveraging funding for REDIP.
“The sooner we apply to the program, the greater the likelihood of receiving funding,” she said.
True Consulting’s total preliminary estimated cost for option one and two are $2,783,265 and $1,649,390 respectively.
Council decided to go with option two for the application of the REDIP-FIT stream.