Community

Holyrood hopes to move on North Side Road repairs

By Kyle Reid | The Shoreline, January 9 2019 (Vol. 31 No. 43)

North Side Road in Holyrood may soon get a much-needed sprucing up as Holyrood council moved to apply to use multi-year capital works funding to repair road damage in the area.
Council approved the application during its end of year budget meeting Dec. 18.


The project will include a complete remediation of North Side Road, which is worse for wear after some environmental damage, according to Councillor Jim Joy.


“This project is one that we have talked (about) and discussed for a while now,” said Joy. “We’ve had a lot of problems with seawater in that area.”


Gary Corbett, Holyrood’s Chief Administrative Officer, noted the Town already has the money available for the work through its multi-year capital works program, because of cost-savings incurred from previous rounds of provincial funding. But it still has to apply for provincial approval to use the money.


“This is cost-savings that happened over the last number of multi-year capital works projects,” said Corbett. “We were given approval by the province to take that extra revenue and move it forward. The number one priority…where that money was already there, was to address the far end of North Side Road on the Southern end.”


However, Corbett added the money isn’t enough to cover the full cost of the project, adding the Town will also have to use gas tax funding, when, and if, use of the capital works funding is approved.


Mayor Gary Goobie noted that while the work has been needed for some time, the Town simply didn’t have the resources to move forward on its own.


“I’ve heard it from some members of the public, ‘Why don’t we go over and do this work?’” said Goobie. “But I think people have to understand and appreciate that when we get into projects of this significance there is a significant cost attached.”


The mayor added that while it would have been quicker for the Town to simply borrow the money and move forward with the project on its own, it would come at an additional cost to Holyrood taxpayers.

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