Cold Lake to Support Bonnyville’s ACP Grant for Waterline

The City of Cold Lake has written a letter in support of Bonnyville going after Alberta Community Program (ACP) Grant funding to secure money to build a waterline from the city to the town. Mayor of Bonnyville, Gene Sobolewski says should the town secure the grant funding, the money will be used to bring in a consultant to assist the municipalities in furthering the waterline project.

“The money will be used to bring in a consultant to navigate us through the maze of how to move things forward,” explains Mayor Sobolewki.  The waterline, which has been a major need for Bonnyville for many years, is starting to show some progress with Cold Lake’s support for this grant funding.

“The City of Cold Lake is on board,” Mayor Sobolewski announces, “I explained to them that the purpose of the grant is to alleviate the [Provincial] Government’s concern and of course they have a concern with the lake, with the water licencing and if there’s an additional draw; which we know there probably will be. That licence has to be renewed.” Mayor Sobolewski explains Bonnyville is trying to get everything in line so the town is ready to go should the funding come in, “usually what we try to do is get it all done, a one-stop-shop. It’s part of the process of getting the waterline.”

“Craig [Copeland] sent me a letter saying they had approved it.” Mayor Sobolewski says the Town was given notice of some of the City’s issues with the waterline; including whether the lake’s water levels would go down and the overall sustainability of the lake. “There’s some issues that need to be resolved and in terms of governance, we don’t know if we’re going to have a commission or whatnot. Cold Lake is in the same boat.”

“Hopefully on [April] 14th we’ll hear some positive news that will allow us to move forward with the engineering,” Mayor Sobolewski referring to the Provincial Budget. The Town also received a letter from Alberta Transportation recently regarding the waterline; which shows some positive hints towards the possibility of this project being approved. According to Mayor Sobolewski, the letter stated that municipalities, like Bonnyville, “who are having issues with their water are going to be high priorities for the Provincial. They didn’t say, ‘yours is awarded’, but for us that’s very positive news.”