By Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN – Public works manager Bill Misener is going to review the Roads Needs Study that was completed for Whitewater Region Township to find out just how much money it would take to bring the township’s roads up to standard.
Deputy-Mayor Izett McBride feels the township is moving backwards when it comes to dealing with its roads.
“Rebuilding our roads is not keeping up” he said at the July 9 public works committee meeting. “I believe in five years, we’ll be worse off than we are now.”
He said if a roof has a hole in it, it’s not just the hole that is repaired, but a new roof put on. It’s the same with the roads, we cannot continue to patch here and there, he said.
“What would it cost to bring the roads up to par,” he questioned. “We can’t continue to do it little bit by bit.”
Deputy-Mayor McBride feels there will be a cost savings if a plan is put into place and the infrastructure is brought up to standard.
Reeve Don Rathwell, who is chairman of this committee, said the cost would have to be investigated.
“We would have to look at long-term funding for infrastructure funding,” he said.
He suggested this would be a matter for the finance and administrative committee to investigate.
Chief administrative officer Christine FitzSimons suggested Mr. Misener look at the Roads Needs Study and if funding can’t be found, possibly borrowing the money would be the next step.
“How much money is there,” questioned Councillor Daryl McLaughlin. “We can’t just keep borrowing and borrowing.”
Treasurer Marsha Hawthorne said the township has not reached the borrowing threshold.
However, that will be reached and then what, Coun. McLaughlin added.
“We won’t have anything left to borrow,” he said. “We need more information. I’m not really in favour of it. The problem is, we just can’t seem to get funding.”
The replacement value of the townsip roads is $150 million, Mr. Misener said, reading from the study.
“There would have to be a significant investment to maintain the roads in the future,” he said.
He noted there would have to be $2 million a year for capital expenditures each year on the roads to get them into shape. He believes roads with 300 cars a day or more should be hardtopped and the rest should be gravel.
As for funding from the provincial government, Mr. Misener said that isn’t going to happen.
“I know we are going backwards, but so are other municipalities,” Mr. Misener said. “We are patching, patching and patching.”
Just to maintain the current standards, $600,000 is going towards roads capital of a $2 million budget, he noted.
“There are going to be a lot of hard decisions to be made, either by this council or the next,” he said.
Looking back to when roads were hard surfaced, Mayor Jim Labow said there was a lot of money coming from the provincial government, sometimes 100 per cent funding. Now, there’s no money and the roads are not up to the standards they once were, he added.
Even if a debenture were taken out to bring the roads up to standard, there are other roads that would fall apart that weren’t in the debenture funding, he said.
Ms. FitzSimons said this issue will be brought to the finance and administrative meeting and she will discuss with the auditor where the municipality stands in regards to borrowing for capital purposes.
“That’s a good approach,” Deputy-Mayor McBride stated.
