Houston will see an injection of $2.34 million into its infrastructure in the coming year.
The federal, provincial and municipal government will each put in $780,000 that will go towards the refurbishment of a deteriorating water tower located off Mountainview Drive and a new water transmission line that promises to improve Houston's water security.
“We'll know that we have a tower that's not going to fail,” chief administrative officer Michael Glavin said. “By having this tower, this extra line, if we ever lose our main water line, we have a back up water line. And that's important because right now we don't. So if we ever lost that water line, we'll be isolated.”
“The other thing is our capacity for fire fighting. Right now, we don't have the capacity because we only have the one tower.”
The funding will completely cover the cost of the refurbishment and it will also pay for new transmission lines.
“We're going to go up to request for qualifications here, for consultants here, probably by the end of the summer, and we'll probably design in the winter,” Glavin said.
Construction will start next spring and completion will arrive in early 2017, he added.
At the council chambers on Friday, Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad came to announce the funding put forth by both the federal and provincial government.
“It's a need that was identified in the community as a high-need project and a high priority, and so I'm very pleased that we've been able to work together to deliver for Houston at this project,” Rustad said. “The federal government coming to the table really helps makes it possible for us to be able to provide these kinds of grants for communities.”
The water tower in question has seen rust and cracks developing. A 2012 report from Opus DaytonKnight suggested that the tower might have been built substandard.
Currently, the town uses the tower as a reserve for peak hour demands and for firefighting. Despite its deterioration, Glavin says the tower is still fully functional.
“We don't anticipate any issues,” Glavin said.