If it ever looked as if the Village of Clyde wouldn’t be able to sustain itself as a municipality, the future may to have gotten a little bleaker after the village found out about the condition of its infrastructure.
At its regular meeting on Dec. 14, council accepted a 226-page report detailing the condition of infrastructure within the village.
The findings in the report are noteworthy.
It was the latest piece of the puzzle in the viability review process as the municipality prepares for Alberta Municipal Affairs’ final judgment on whether the municipality should remain independent, or becomes a hamlet within Westlock County.
Associated Engineering, which penned the report, estimates $9.19 million worth of work is required to bring the municipality’s roads, sewers, and water distribution systems up to par.
While the majority of the work is not urgent, $3.65 million worth of repairs are listed as Priority 1, including $800,000 worth of repairs to sidewalks, $950,000 to the water distribution system and $1.86 million to the wastewater system. Even if the village expends its full capital budget, worth approximately $200,000 yearly, for the next decade, the municipality would still have $1.5 million worth of priority repairs remaining.
And that’s just covering off the immediate fixes the engineering firm says the current condition of the items “may impact public health and safety, and the environment.”
It doesn’t include making any headway on the $5.5 million worth of Priority 2 and 3 items that Associated Engineering recommends need fixing.
So how does this impact the municipality’s future?
It’s tough to say, but it is likely that the report and its findings will have an impact on the decision whether or not the village dissolves — especially given the repairs would be nearly impossible for the municipality to pay for with a tax base of less than $500,000.
That said, council doesn’t seem too concerned with the report findings. Mayor Doug Nyal called the repairs “not practical” and “not necessary.”
Meanwhile Coun. Neil Olson, the village’s representative on the viability review team, also said the items were only recommendations.
The report will now go to the viability review team for evaluation, before Municipal Affairs makes its recommendation on the future of the municipality.
Hamlet or village? It’s question the people of Clyde now wait to be answered once and for all in 2016.
