MAPLETON – Council here has decided to apply for COVID-19 funding from the federal and provincial governments to address local infrastructure needs.
The municipality can apply for up to $100,000 from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s (ICIP) COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream.
In a Dec. 8 report to Mapleton council, CAO Manny Baron said the COVID stream is to support public infrastructure defined as tangible capital assets for public use and/or benefit.
“I know that this funding, $100,000 is being put aside for every municipality that applies,” said Mayor Gregg Davidson.
“There’s no good reason to leave good money on the table.
“So it’s good that we’re actually putting an application forward.”
The catch is the project must be completed by December 2021.
Municipal staff suggested replacing the PMD hall floor for $75,000 and replacing the PMD stage and sound system for $25,000.
The projects are the same asset class and could become one project and meet the application criteria.
However, councillor Marlene Ottens said she isn’t comfortable replacing the hall floor when it was replaced about a decade ago.
“I think a better choice for that section of that $100,000 would be to apply to the bathroom renovation that we are planning to do anyways at the (PMD) arena,” she said, adding the bathroom was to be done in 2020 but was pushed back to 2021.
She said the original money set aside for the bathroom renovation could then be used elsewhere in the municipality.
“So I would like to suggest that the application be altered and take the arena floor out and put the arena bathrooms in, since it also has an accessibility component to it,” Ottens said.
Director of public works Sam Mattina said it was no problem to switch out the floor renovation for the bathroom.
“Because the project has not been initiated, then it does still qualify for the application,” he said.
Though the bathroom renovations were only budgeted at $50,000, Mattina said the scope and technical details had not been established so the renovation should fit the $75,000 slot in the application.
Councillor Paul Douglas asked whether the stage and sound system could still be replaced.
“We plan to amalgamate the projects and call it one project,” Mattina explained.
“Being that it is the same asset class it qualifies as one project.”
Council agreed to apply for funding for the PMD arena bathroom renovation and the stage and sound system replacement.
