Bluewater Successful In Getting Provincial Grant For The Bayfield Wastewater Treatment Facility Expansion

by Bob Montgomery

Bluewater Mayor Paul Klopp says the municipality has received a grant from the province that will cover 73 percent of the cost of the Bayfield wastewater treatment facility expansion to a maximum of just over eight million dollars. 

Klopp says that's definitely great news. But that left the municipality with the task of covering the remainder of the cost of just over three million dollars. Staff presented a report to council that included three options.

The first involved borrowing internally at a rate of 4.7 percent interest and an annual cost of 44-thousand dollars for the interest on that money. The second option was to borrow from the provincial plan and the interest rate for that was 4.96 percent. That would amount to about 46-thousand dollars in a year. And the third option was to borrow from a lending institution and that would cost almost sixty-thousand dollars a year.

Klopp points out the development charges on 32 new homes would cover the 929-thousand dollars municipal cost. He felt 32 new homes is a reasonable expectation and the expansion in the sewage system would ultimately allow almost another five hundred homes. Klopp adds, that would still leave almost three-million dollars in reserves in the event of a serious break down in the system. Council has voted and decided to go with option number one.