Photo: Luc Rempel

Council was told several capital projects could be delayed due to an upgrade at the Salmon Arm wastewater treatment plant requiring more funds.

At the Dec. 9 Salmon Arm city council meeting a staff report was presented recommending council allocate additional funds to the budget to upgrade the secondary clarifier at the wastewater treatment plant and to award the contract to Uptime Industrial Inc.

“The 2024 budget for this project was $600,000,” explained Jennifer Wilson, city engineer. “Awarded to the lowest bidder, plus contingency will result in a budget shortfall of $270,000.”

The clarifier is a device that separates solids from incoming wastewater before it moves on to the next stage in treatment.

“The water that's coming into the secondary clarifiers is quite muddy looking and by the time it comes out, it looks about as clear as the lake water,” Wilson explained.

In order to add the additional funds; $180,000 will be taken from the budget of the Claris Cove lift station project, $81,000 will come from the Trans-Canada Highway main project and $9,000 will come from a project to improve sanitary sewer, storm sewer and roads improvements in the 4 Ave. SE area.

The total funding necessary to award the contract and keep the necessary 10% contingency fund is $809,561.50.

Coun. Sylvia Lindgren asked what would happen to the other projects with so much money being moved from their budgets.

Wilson explained the projects would come back to council during the 2025 budget deliberations.

“Unfortunately, it does mean that other projects don't tend to make the list, so ultimately it is deferring the capital works program a little bit,” she added.

Coun. Kevin Flynn noted the project is set to cost, “close to a million dollars,” and spoke up to confirm that this upgraded secondary clarifier would still be used if the city went ahead with plans to expand the wastewater treatment plant.

Wilson confirmed that it would.

Despite the steep price and necessary cuts to other capital projects, council voted unanimously to award the contract to Uptime Industrial Inc.