Port Hawkesbury applies for funding to support water projects

PORT HAWKESBURY — The Town of Port Hawkesbury intends to apply for provincial funding for what town officials call two essential water capital projects.

Councillors voted in favour of making the applications at a meeting earlier this month.

One project, which is the town’s top priority, involves detailed engineering design for water system upgrades so that the project can be neartender ready. It is expected to cost $28,000.

CAO Terry Doyle noted the town had applied for funding for the project under another program last year and wasn’t successful.

“There is essential work that has to be completed,” Doyle said.

If the funding for the engineering work is approved, it would only take a short time to move ahead with the actual work, which would include recoating the interior and exterior of the tower off of Pitt Street, new controls, updated monitoring instrumentation and controls and site improvements. It would also involve work at the MacDonald Street valve chamber and the removal of the Tamarac water tower, which has been a source of safety concerns for residents. That tank is no longer in use.

The second project is the recoating of the flocculation tank at the water treatment plant, which was last done in 2010 and is also considered essential work, Doyle said.

That has initially been estimated to cost about $40,000 and it has been forwarded to the town’s budget deliberations.