Moonlight Drive waxes higher on Paradise’s priority list
By Mark Squibb | Mar. 11, 2021
Residents of Moonlight Drive should expect to see some upgrades on their street in the near future, as Paradise council voted during its March 2 meeting to reallocate leftover 2017-2020 multi-year capital works money for the project.
“There are some remaining funds in this project which are free to reallocate,” said councillor Alan English. “The town has already budgeted money to upgrade Moonlight Drive with water and sewer services. This street is in poor condition and is on the water and sewer priority list. The Town has prioritized the installation of water and sewer on Moonlight Drive due to severe deterioration of the road. This was noted by council and detailed in the 2021 Budget. The Town estimates a total project cost of $878,000. The Town has approximately $559,000 in additional funds in the 2018 water and sewer multi-year capital works budget, and council has previously noted their preference in using these funds for further water and sewer installation.”
Additionally, said English, the town budgeted a further $435,000 towards the project.
To use the remaining 2018 water and sewer funds required the creation of a new multi year capital works agreement and official reallocation of funds to that project.
The first motion of council was to apply for a new multi-year capital work project for Moonlight Drive water and sewer work in the amount of $870,000, while the second motion was that the Town of Paradise reallocate $559,030 in unspent multi year capital works funding to Moonlight Drive water and sewer.
“The last water and sewer project was well underbudget and the end result was that there was a substantial saving in the amount of $559,000, and it the unanimous consensus of council to ensure that these funds were applied to future water and sewer projects, and that’s exactly what’s happening,” said English.
Deputy Mayor Elizabeth Laurie added a further comment to the rationale for the decision.
“We had significant upgrades, as councillor English has said, that we needed for Moonlight Drive, and we had to bump Moonlight Drive up ahead on the water and sewer priority list because it didn’t make sense to invest money into that road work that was needed and then in a couple of years tear it all up again to do the water and sewer,” Laurie explained.
Both motions passed unanimously.