South Glengarry Township is committing over $4 million to the Glen Walter water tower construction. In total, the water tower’s price tag could increase to over $10 million with the inclusion of new high lift pumps, watermains and contract administration for the project.
Water and wastewater capacity in Glen Walter has been a concern for some time and has delayed any progress in housing development. The boil water advisory in Glen Walter during the Christmas holidays drew attention to the issues facing the locality.
The contract on the project has been awarded to Landmark Structures Co., the only company to submit by the December 2024 tender deadline, which submitted a bid of $7,793,000 for the construction of the water tower along with minor improvements to watermains in the vicinity of the new tower. South Glengarry has obtained federal contributions of $1,988,800 and provincial funding of $1,657,167 towards the project. Council has also already committed $589,000 for the water tower from the Glen Walter reserves.
The municipality plans to apply for provincial funding through the $175 million Health and Safety Water Stream. This program has been established to assist municipalities to repair aging water infrastructure, expand capacities to ensure current demand for water can be met and allow for potential growth with additional housing units. It is hoped that a successful application will support some of the costs for construction of the water tower in Glen Walter, along with pump upgrades and infrastructure improvements. However, the township is moving forward without knowing if it will receive provincial assistance.
The monthly cost to residents and businesses in the Glen Walter area for the new water tower and infrastructure improvements will be significantly higher than what they have been paying to date. Because there are so few users, and no new connections can be added until the water and wastewater capacity is increased to allow for development, the burden of the cost will fall on current property owners. The situation is a catch 22, where new housing units would help to share the cost to build the water tower, but no new homes can be constructed with the water and wastewater already over capacity.
