Even though the 2016 town budget won’t be approved by Mayor Sue McKortoff and members of town council for several more weeks, council on Monday approved several projects that have been identified as top priority for implementation.

Barry Romanko, the town’s chief administrative officer, said certain projects in the 2016 capital budget have been identified as council’s priority projects that will be approved when the final budget is approved.

“Some of these projects require early approval if tendering timelines are to be achieved to enable timely implementation of the project,” said Romanko.

Council unanimously approved providing the funding to allow three major capital projects to proceed as quickly as possible.

They included:

  • Completion of the 74th Avenue reconstruction from 85th Avenue to Main Street. This project is budgeted at $341,000 and pre-budget approval was being sought to enable early tendering and approval to allow for the completion of the project prior to May 31.
  • Gyro Park to the Starlite water supply main. This project was budgeted at $305,000 and pre-budget approval was being sought to enable early tendering and award so that work can commence when Osoyoos Lake water levels are at their lowest.
  • Reconstructing the retaining wall at Lions Beach and pedestrian access between Spartan Drive and Gyro Park. These projects are budgeted at $40,000 and $31,000, respectively. These two projects are being tendered together to seek out better costing and the retaining wall project needs to be completed in the spring before Osoyoos Lake levels begin rising.

Tendering for all of these projects is expected to begin within the next couple of weeks.

It’s commonplace for members of town councils across the province to allow certain projects to proceed by using this method prior to the official town budget document being accepted and officially passed by their respective councils.

Some construction projects need to be completed in a timely fashion and using pre-budget voting allows these projects to proceed in a timely fashion.

Construction on all three of these projects is expected to begin in a matter of weeks.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times