SEAN CHASE

sean.chase@sunmedia.ca

PETAWAWA - Staff unveiled the 2012 waterworks and sewage budget noting that while flat rates will remain unchanged consumption rates will increase.

The utilities budget, developed with input from the town's engineering consultants, Jp2g, and the Ontario Clean Water Agency, showed that an estimated surplus of $99,221 in waterworks and a deficit of $36,442 in the sewage system will be carried over to this year.

Clerk/deputy chief administrative officer Dan Scissons told council that revenue estimates will be based on this year's user charges which were adopted in March. Flat rate water and wastewater rates will be maintained at the previous year's levels. Consumptive rates will be increased by 3.8 per cent for metered water customers and by 8.6 per cent for users of the sanitary sewage system.

Mr. Scissons added staff will be recommending an ambitious capital works program for the town's water and sewage infrastructure.

"We've been able to put a substantial amount of money away into reserves and this year we're actually going to use some of that money to fund some of the major construction that we have proposed for the year," he said.

The main initiative will be the reconstruction of Victoria Street, a project jointly funded by Renfrew County. Over $1.8 million will be allocated between the capital sewage and capital water budgets for this undertaking. Funding is anticipated from both the sewage system and development charges reserves.

The town will again collaborate with the upper tier on the restoration of the Petawawa River bridge with $350,000 allocated to the twinning of the watermain currently suspended beneath the Petawawa Boulevard river crossing. The addition of this second 300-millimetre conduit will correct a deficiency noted in the water distribution system by removing the constriction that currently exists where the 450-millimetre diameter pipes on either side of the bridge connect to the smaller main now in place.

Staff will set aside another $187,000 for a new 300-millimetre watermain and repairs to the existing sanitary sewer on Herman Street, which will undergo urbanization work this summer. Development charge funding of $150,728 will offset the waterworks cost.

Mr. Scissons said the final phase of the east trunk looping from the CFB Petawawa south townsite to booster station No. 2, at a cost of $75,000, will be completed with the installation of a watermain originating at Limestone Trail. This will provide more pumping capacity at the Janet Street booster station to accommodate ongoing growth, he added.

Appropriations to reserves will be limited to $332,991 in waterworks as a result of the funding required to support the infrastructure renewal planned for 2012, Mr. Scissons noted. In February, council learned from consultants that, as of last year, the town has set aside $1.13 million for the water distribution system and $2.5 million for water plant capital. In the wastewater reserves, $1.5 million has been allocated for the treatment plant, while $456,198 has been earmarked for the collection system.

Sean Chase is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist