CORNWALL, Ontario – In a special meeting Cornwall City Council considered extending sanitary sewer services to the North end of Brookdale Ave. from Tollgate Rd. to Cornwall Centre. Rd.
There are 166 developable acres owned by 13 property owners on that section of Brookdale Ave. between Tollgate Rd. and Cornwall Centre Rd.
The cost of extending sanitary sewer services to the north end of Brookdale Ave. would be $7 million. There are currently no options for funding that the City could apply for from senior levels of government and the City does not have money in its reserves to cover the cost.
The current plan would be to have the property owners along that stretch of Brookdale Ave. pay a share of the cost to hook up to the new sewer system and this would cover around $3.5 million worth of the project. The remaining half of the project would be funded as a capital project from the City in their 2018 budget.
The City would install the sanitary sewer along the route, along with two pumping stations, one at Tollgate Rd. and one just past Hwy 401.
Property owners would be responsible for the cost of connecting their property to the extended sanitary sewer system. The City’s General Manager of Financial Services Tracey Bailey said that a property owner could choose not connect their property and this decision would not increase the cost to other property owners. Bailey went on to explain that this cost would be filed as an account receivable that they would try to collect at a later date.
“All property owners have had the opportunity to voice their concerns for this project,” said the City’s Division Manager for Economic Development Bob Peters. “We have done those consultations and are aware of their concerns.”
Peters went on to say that there was not necessarily a consensus on the issue.
“There is a minority that are against this and some that are neutral,” he said.
The City has done public consultations on this issue in 1997, 2013, 2016 and in 2017.
Boileau explained that growth in that part of town is dependent on the future of this project. One business on that route is the Irving Gas station on Brookdale near Cornwall Centre Rd.
“Irving will go ahead with their development project, but they are waiting on us to go forward with this,” he said. “They could go forward with a private sewer, but they don’t want that and I don’t think we want that.”
After an hour and a half of discussion, Council decided to refer the report to PAC for further public consultation.
