Last week, Ashcroft announced that its application for a $400,000 grant had been successful. The funds were approved under the province’s Towns for Tomorrow grant program.
The funds will be used for sewer treatment plant upgrades, with the Village spending $175,000 of its own money from the federal Gas Tax Revenues program.“I was glad to hear we got it,” Mayor Andy Anderson said at last week’s Council meeting. “It’s great news.”
Administrator Michelle Allen told Council that the upgrades would “make it operation efficient rather than energy efficient.”
However, the upgrades are expected to reduce the plant’s energy costs and reduce the Village’s carbon footprint.
Allen told Council that the upgrades will provide backup power at the plant and at the Public Works building so that workers “don’t have to babysit the plant during power outages” to make sure the effluent doesn’t back up into the river.
The application was put together in January by municipal engineers Urban Systems for some long needed upgrades to the sewage treatment plant, said Allen.
The upgrades will include: replacing the air blowers in the building; upgrading the air diffusers and piping; installing computer controls; installing backup power to take over during power outages; installing energy efficient lighting; and increasing ventilation to reduce condensation in the building.