Burk's Falls is preparing for future residential growth, and to handle that growth it needs to ensure there is enough capacity with its water and wastewater system.
To address the capacity issue, the council has approved a $336,000 study to help get a third lagoon into the ground.
Council was told at a special meeting Jan. 17 the study needs to be done in a year's time.
It will identify potential problems and potential solutions on how to meet the water needs of future growth.
Developers have approached the municipality about residential construction and staff told council that over the next 10 to 20 years Burk's Falls could potentially see more than 150 units built.
At the moment the two existing lagoons easily handle the water and wastewater demand and can also accommodate the demand that a small amount of growth would generate in the short term.
But clerk administrator Nicky Kunkle told council the community needs more capacity to meet the needs in future years.
If a third lagoon is recommended, it's a facility that would take two to three years to build and the cost, although not known today, would easily be in the multi-million dollar range.
“We don't have a lot of time,” Kunkle said.
“If we want to be ready for growth and development, we need to work on this as soon as possible.”
The water and wastewater expansion project may include Burk's Falls' neighbouring townships, Armour and Ryerson.
Kunkle said staff are working on putting together numbers for both townships to consider, in the event they want to be part of the project.
But Kunkle said even if Armour and Ryerson decide against joining in the water and wastewater capacity project, Burk's Falls has to move forward with an expansion.
“We know the two lagoons are not going to meet the demand of potential development over the next 10 years,” she said.
“In 10 years we'll be over our capacity.”
In addition to the residential growth debate, council is looking at another growth project, but one that's much smaller in scale.
It's the KCU Market project and council has approved the tendering process to move this project forward.
This project involves putting up a new building where the former Kawartha Credit Union stood at 186 Ontario Street after it relocated to another building in town.
Earlier Mayor Cathy Still said KCU had no plans for its former home and turned it over to the municipality to create an economic opportunity.
The building has been torn down because it would cost too much to renovate. In 2021, the cost to build a new two-storey structure was about $1.7 million.
The municipality approached FedNor and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to help with the new build.
The municipality was hoping to begin construction last year, however, COVID-19 delayed the project to the point the municipality is now asking both funding agencies to extend funding for the new building.
Kunkle told council the plan is to now get construction underway this spring with the goal of seeing the building occupied sometime during 2023.
Council and staff were optimistic the federal and provincial extension request for funds would be approved because the circumstances to start the project were beyond the municipality's control.
The original plan called for the KCU Market to have one tenant act as the anchor in one part of the building with smaller businesses operating in the rest of the building.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.