Two more Quadra Island properties want in on new sewer service.
The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) board of directors was expected to decide at a meeting Thursday, after the Mirror went to press, whether to include two additional properties on Pidcock Road in the sewer extension boundaries.
Russ Hotsenpiller, chief administrative officer of the SRD, said adding the extra properties won’t affect costs for the original 36 properties online to receive sewer service.
“An analysis of construction cost estimates has confirmed that the addition of the two properties can be accommodated within the extension project without impacting the per property cost ceiling offered to the original 36 properties,” Hotsenpiller wrote in a report to the board.
“This would be conditional on a further proportionate infusion of Gas Tax funding from Electoral Area C.
“The owners of the properties in question are aware of the cost implications associated with inclusion to the extension project boundaries.”
An infusion of $392,400 in federal Gas Tax funds towards the cost of the sewer project has the original 36 properties paying $9,100 plus an additional cost to hook up their property to the sewer line which will vary from home to home.
Before the Gas Tax funds were applied, though, the properties were looking at having to pay $16,630.
A petition in May 2012, to gauge support for the project at the more expensive, $16,630 cost, failed with only 30 per cent of affected residents signing in support of the project.
That changed this past July when the regional district offered the lower cost and instead hosted a referendum.
In that referendum, 18 people voted in favour while 15 voted against. The 55 per cent affirmative vote was enough to go ahead with the $720,000 project.
Abram said after the referendum that the sewer expansion, which will get properties in the foreshore and Pidcock Road areas of Quadra Island, as well as on Heriot Bay Road, off of septic systems, will benefit the entire community.
“It’ll serve some people who really, really need the service because of failing septic systems and it’ll be a benefit to the environment,” Abram said.
That appears to have resonated with at least a few Quadra Islanders.
In addition to the two properties seeking to be included on Pidcock Road, two other properties on Green Road applied in September to also join the sewer service area.
Hotsenpiller said the main reason for those requests was “troublesome on-site sewage systems.”
Construction on the sewer extension project is expected to get underway in the spring of next year, with completion estimated to come sometime next fall.