Millions needed to repair infrastructure: Grand Forks
By Mona Mattei
$36.8 million is needed for fire safety, sewer lines, water pipes and wells in Grand Forks over the next few years, residents heard last week. At a public meeting to see if locals are ready to foot the bill for the needed repairs, city council presented an engineering report by Kerr Wood Leidel Associates about the municipality’s infrastructure. Council is proposing a multi-year upgrading program to address the existing systems and roadways after KWL’s report detailed the deteriorating systems within the city. They plan to complete all the repairs over a 10-year period with costs spread out by borrowing. “I think what we’ve all agreed on is that we’re going to have to borrow money,” said Mayor Brian Taylor. “Clearly the taxpayer of today can’t be expected to pay for all of the upgrades that are necessary. So we need to amortize the cost of what we do over an extended period of time. Fifty years seems like a pretty reasonable period of time to spread the cost over so that we can keep it affordable.” Only a few people turned out to the meeting held on Wednesday, Oct. 27 at the Grand Forks Senior Secondary School auditorium. While the turnout was disappointing for council, about 33 people, those present seemed supportive of the work that needs to be tackled. “As I see it, this job is not for this council alone,” said local resident Nigel James, “because you’ve got a lot of catch up to do, of course, which is going to cost. That’s a 10 year plan. Guess what, in 10 years there’s another 10-year plan thereafter. It’s going to be a continuous issue to stay on top of what we need in order to survive.” The presentation by Neil McDonald, an engineer with KWL, gave the audience a snapshot of the current state of the sanitary system, potable water supply, storm water management and roads and sidewalks. McDonald highly recommends that the deficiencies be addressed by prioritizing certain areas, and to do road work at the same time as the underground systems are done. “Our recommendation to the city would be that if you’re going to those streets and do anything at all, you should do road, water and sewer concurrently and get the economies out of that,” said McDonald. “It’s fairly expensive but you might as well get it done in one shot because it’s just going to be ongoing headaches if you don’t.” Once the repairs are all complete, including the development of a west side reservoir, not only will the systems be more functional, but they will also ensure appropriate fire safety for the entire city, said McDonald. In the current system, he explained, fire protection ability is reduced in locations farthest from the existing east side water storage. The next step for the city will be to take the proposed project to referendum in order to finance the work. They will be developing an asset management policy and plan to be able to start work on the needed repairs while the referendum is done.
The full report from KWL is available online at:
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