Better late than never.
District council recently received some good news from the B.C. government related to a grant application submitted three years ago.
Specifically, the district has been informed it will receive one-time funding from a provincial Public Safety and Community Hazard Mitigation Funding initiative to the tune of $33,333. The funds are intended to be part of a $50,000 hydraulic conductivity assessment of the narrows.
Hydraulic conductivity is, essentially is a measure of how easily water is able to pass through soil, rock, etc.
“The good news is this is a grant that was applied for back in 2013, and sat in abeyance for almost three years, and prior to the fiscal close of the provincial government’s budget, which is March 31 of every year, we received an email from the ministry basically asking for some information in order to button up the application and secure the funding,” explained town manager Evan Parliament. “I think I reported at the last meeting that Wendy Law was successful in providing the information that secured the funding of $33,330…”
Council agreed to put $100,000 into the district’s operational budget for 2016 for the dredging of the channel. District chief financial officer Kelly Bennett said that money could be used for consulting services to assist with the facilitation of dredging.
“We should be very mindful of how we engage services of a professional to deal with the conditions of this grant,” said Parliament. “So the good news is we can spend up to $50,000 dealing with the flow of water through the narrows dealing with those three key concerns in council… flood mitigation, the proposed sea wall and possibly the proposed dredging. So staff are going to look at different contractors who can assist us with that.”