KENSINGTON, P.E.I. - An infrastructure program has caught the interest of officials in Kensington.
On Monday, Kensington town councillors gave Chief Administrative Officer Geoff Baker the go-ahead to file an “expression of interest” to the P.E.I. – Canada Infrastructure Secretariat to be part of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
For this the town identified a number of “needs,” like the Broadway Street South watermain extension, sewer main replacement, water tower replacement, train station upgrades, parking improvements at Credit Union Centre, Barrett/Broadway Street South sidewalk replacements and Credit Union Centre solar panel installation.
“These are not wants, these are needs. And they are things that need to be seriously looked at,” said Kensington Mayor Rowan Caseley.
Take the watermain extension, he said.
“We’ve got it basically dead-ended at each end and then we can’t get service to people who are out of reach because we don’t have the water pressure.”
Caseley said while all the items were priority for the town, and officials would like to see them all completed, he would be happy if two or three were selected.
If all of the projects were completed it would cost a little over $5 million.
“Say if the solar panel project was selected. Any given month we spend $9,000 to $10,000 in electricity bills. If we are able to install the panels, it could reduce hopefully by half.”
Baker said it was a simplistic process.
“We were able to develop a short list about a series of projects we’d like to see completed. From there we had the capital costs determined. Some of these projects are ones that have been on our books for a number of years. It’d be great to see some of them get completed.”
