Bonnyville approached with ideas to upgrade Iron Horse Trail

Mayor of Bonnyville Gene Sobolewski says there has been some ideas brought to the Town of Bonnyville that during the process of constructing the waterline from Cold Lake to Bonnyville the Town assist in upgrading the Iron Horse Trail.

The mayor says the request came from user groups of the Iron Horse Trail.  Sobolewski and Councillor Ray Prevost met with some of the stewards of the Iron Horse Trail. “They want to have a reconstruction as part of the construction.” Plans are to put the waterline in and then put the trail back to the same condition it was in prior to the waterline. The user group would like to see some upgrades made, instead of just going back to as is.

The mayor stated that there would have to be some more discussion before anything would be decided on that matter, “simply because it would be the Town of Bonnyville that is essentially paying the costs after the grant value.” Sobolewski says the regrading of the trail would not fall under the Provincial or Federal grant funding that was given for the waterline project. “If push comes to shove, the Town of Bonnyville would have to fund the upgrade of the trail.”

“There would have to be further discussion, because I am not in favour of that. The Town of Bonnyville does not have the means, nor the ability, nor the desire to pay for an upgraded trail.”

As for the waterline, plans are moving forward. “We are still well-underway,” Mayor of Bonnyville Gene Sobolewski says Town Council was updated on the waterline process that’ll see Cold Lake water brought to Bonnyville. “We have done the prequalification stages, and we are in the design stage. We’re ready to go to tender in some aspects of it.”

The water treatment plant will be ready for a tender in the spring-summer of 2018. The upgrades to the plant and waterline are expected in the summer of 2019.