The Town of Westlock is heavily considering a $5.7 million option to demolish the Eastglen Water Tower and expand its underground reservoir to cover its future water needs, subject to grant approval from higher levels of government.
The Town of Westlock is heavily considering a $5.7 million option to demolish the Eastglen Water Tower and expand its underground reservoir to cover its future water needs, subject to grant approval from higher levels of government.
Council made the decision to explore this option at its April 18 Committee of the Whole meeting following a report by MPE Engineering.
'What we've asked (the engineers) to do now is to start to work on the detailed estimates, so if some grant funding were to come along, that we're in a position to move faster," mayor Ralph Leriger said.
He noted that with these added details, it would move the town closer to the tendering stage. The report notes that the tower is structurally fine for now, although it isn't without issues.
'The actual assessment of the tower is that it will probably last another seven years without doing anything to it," said CAO Dean Krause. 'When we went to inspect the tower, the bottom had an ice layer on it."
The report gave council two options in regards to its water storage - the first was a $5.3 million plan to renovate the tower. Krause noted that doing so could potentially expand the tower's life by another 20 years, but the town would still be short on its water supply. The second option, with a $5.7 million pricetag, was to demolish the tower and expand the reservoir.
Leriger said that the $400,000 difference made the decision easy.
'It's very clear if you look at the two options that the price is so close that the demolition and the underground storage is the option we're choosing," he said.
'The next steps are of course to obtain some grant funding since this is a significant amount of money."
He noted that while council now had a way forward, there was still at lot of information gathering that was needed before the wrecking ball swings.
'We want to make sure that once the ice layer is gone in there that they camera it and ensure that it's in good shape for the transition time," said Leriger. 'We're also looking at doing the engineering for the remainder of the work. There's always more engineering."
The town owns and operates the water supply facilities, but also provides the Westlock Regional Water Services Commission with additional water when needed.
