Many long years of careful planning has finally reached fruition for the City of Weyburn, as they were able to do a ground-breaking ceremony for a major infrastructure project that will both improve and expand the City’s capacity for providing clean, fresh water for the residents and businesses of Weyburn.
There are three components to this project which have a combined value of over $20 million, with funding coming from the federal and provincial governments, along with funds provided by the City of Weyburn.
The main project is a new, expanded water reservoir, which will take about a year and a half to complete, with the planned completion date in December of 2018.
City residents and businesses will also see new high-tech water meters installed, making Weyburn on the cutting edge in introducing this technology to the city where, with an app downloaded onto your smartphone, you can keep accurate track of exactly how much water you’re using, and even how much water you may be leaking and aren’t aware of.
In addition, there will be 50 residences that will have lead water lines replaced, making their water service safer and cleaner.
All of this will improve the quality of water service to the city’s residents and business community, and will enable expansion and growth of the city to as many as 22,000 residents, which is roughly double its current size.
Such a large project doesn’t just happen, as first long-term planning needs to occur to meet the City’s needs now and in the future, and the City had to prepare to pay for their portion of the project by building up their reserves in their utilities department, and application had to be made to both the provincial and federal governments for infrastructure grant funding. Building up the reserves means that residents won’t have to see dollars tacked onto their tax bills, as the monies have been set aside over a number of years to enable such a project to proceed.
This project could never have proceeded without these grants, which are provided to all municipalities for projects like this, especially for upgrades and expansions of water and sewer services.
In the coming weeks, months and years, whenever you turn on a water tap or turn on your dishwasher, be aware there was a whole lot of careful planning and work to make that system possible, including providing water and sewer services to new homes and new businesses that will be built as Weyburn continues to grow. — Greg Nikkel
