West Kelowna

Several capital improvement projects will go ahead in West Kelowna in 2013.

West Kelowna Council gave approval Tuesday during lengthy budget deliberations.

Photo: Contributed

Council gave the budget, which includes a 3 per cent tax increase, first reading Tuesday.

West Kelowna mayor, Doug Findlater says council made the decision in order to get the projects moving ahead rather than wait until the budget is adopted.

"One of the odd situations with municipal budgets is that they are not finalized until the end of May. So, if you wait for the budget to get to final reading and adoption you have lost half your year," says Findlater.

"We are trying to advance some of these things so they get done instead of having them still hanging around."

The projects have a total price tag of nearly $9M including three priced at over $1M.

These include phase 3 of the Gellatly Road upgrade between Angus Road and the CN Wharf ($2.95M), Jim Lind Arena renovation ($1.45M) and the municipality's 2013 road rehabilitation project ($1M).

Other important community projects given the green light Tuesday include:

• Brown Road Streetscape (Westbank Centre Revitalization) - $800,000
• Casa Loma Drainage Improvements Phase 2 - $700,000
• Memorial Park Upgrades - $180,000
• Westbank Cemetery Upgrade - $500,000
• Gellatly Road Design (Carrington to Boucherie) - $300,000
• Pedestrian Improvement Program - $250,000
• Johnson Bentley Memorial Aquatic Centre Structural Upgrades - $250,000
• Westlake Road Design (Hwy 97 to Sunview) - $220,000
• CNR Wharf Design – $157,000
• Gellatly Boat Launch – South Retaining Wall - $120,000
• Gellatly Dog Beach Fence - $13,500