Peachland’s council has approved the partial use of the COVID-19 Safe Restart Grant to complete the district’s water treatment plant.
The grant, provided by the province, is intended to help local governments offset the effects of COVID-19 in their communities.
Peachland received $1.65 million to help the district start up again in the wake of the pandemic.
The district’s staff recommended that some of the funds from the grant be used to help finish the water treatment plant. Shawn Grundy, Peachland’s director of operations, explained that shipping some of the materials to complete the plant had been delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Using the funds to buy those items will fall under the intended usage of the grant.
Grundy said the water treatment plant needed $105,000 in order to finish it.
“With any larger construction projects, there are typically unforeseen items that do come up and stuff that’s not included in the contract,” he said.
“The majority of (the issues we faced) was due to shipping. When COVID hit, there were a lot of orders being closed, there were a lot of issues with shipping things to Canada.”
Grundy said one specific item was the centrifuge, where changes to the piping were needed but the parts couldn’t get to Peachland due to COVID-19 restrictions on travel.
Council had several questions regarding the plan, but the district’s CAO Joe Mitchell assured the council that the grant is meant to be used for operational costs, not capital, and the water treatment plant falls under the former.
As council approved using some of the grant for the water treatment plant, the district will be left with $1.45 million for other initiatives to restart the local economy.
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