By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver is looking to add more grant funds to continue developing the town’s asset management planning.
In 2021 the town received $50,000 from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) under the municipal asset management program. This grant required a contribution from the town of $12,500 and therefore came in at a total of $62,500.
Adam Goodwin, project coordinator with the town explained to council that they have now spent all these funds on a “high level roads strategy” which he described as a guide for a road assets plan. The town also used some of this funding for training town staff around asset management.
On March 11, Oliver agreed to apply for another grant to continue this work. The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Asset Management Program supports municipalities continuing to develop their asset management plans and programs.
Town council decided to apply for up to the maximum of $25,000, which has to be matched by the town, but the program would count the already received FCM grant as the town’s matching funds.
Goodwin explained that if successful they would continue to “train staff and build capacity” so that the asset management plan can be completed. This would include identifying all the data parameters, not just with roads but with all the town’s assets to be collected and considered.
The next steps the town would take are to seek a deeper analysis of the current asset management practices, assess the current strategy and practices, have workshops and training with the town, and create a vision and detailed roadmap to implement “a comprehensive and data-driven Town of Oliver asset management strategy.”
Goodwin noted that this would help staff make “more informed and more data-driven recommendations and assessments”.
