The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

as c v economist suntribune saturday march 10 2001 whitchurchstouffville among municipalities vying for- provincialfunding to meetnew water standards by patrick mangion staff writer a tiny bridge in a quiet area of newmarket has been singled out as the towns top healthandsafety priority in a bid to secure infrastructure grants from the provincial government the tories have made upto 600 million in superbuild funding available to municipalities over the next five years with more money on the way superbuild an agency of the ministry of finance created two years ago to provide funding for the expansion and renewal of ontarios infrastructure requested proposals for its first initiative ostar ontario small town and rural development infrastructure program last august the program is for communities with a population less than 100000 making richmond hiu markham and vaughan ineligible newmarket has asked for 200000 fromsuperbuild its pro ject estimated at a total cost of 300000 would replace the bridge on timothy street nearthe- fair- grounds with a slightly largerstruc- ture able to accommodate- two laries of traffic along with a new sidewalk on one side staff photoerin riley bob sheltdn director of public works and an engineer with the town of newmarket stands in front of the timothy street bridge which the town hopes to upgrade with help from a 200000 provincial grant under the by comparison georgina k fiind asked for 27 million half the cost the funding options available to ofitswiuowbeachwaterandsewer municipalities pfojectthat would service keswick it meant town officials had to to jacksons point v look to the final option trans- jwherf asked why newmarket portation structures for funding didntgo after a biggerpr6ject and east gwmmburyfollowed suit more fundingbqb sheltqn applying foh 225000 under the jewmarkets publicworks director same category to repair and replace saidthe town wanted to be realistic bridges and culverts around the initsblctv k j smau community yducanpuraverygenum king township considered the berputtfiere arid still getturnejd contentious big pipe for superbuild hbymiaid shelton consultant fundingbut eventually settled on advised uslreplacing merimotiiyrepairmgmeweusystemjnthetiny streetbndge would be our best- community of ansriprveldt which h tchancebf qualifying for funding received a boilwater advisory from vffsrielton said the town expects to the region last september received mndingfrom superbuild whitchurchstouffville has because the project is withirfreach applied- for 210000 to improve applications for more significant water mains at a costof 310000 sums of monevaresifnply aveflecsi have projects that address health and safety will compete against hun dreds of other applications from other ontario municipalities you can put a very large number out there and still get turned down a consultant advised us replacing the timothy street bridge would be our best chance of qualifying for funding superbuild president and ceo reviewed independently said superbuild spokesperson john macmillan adding the superbuild corporation did not set a ceiling on the amount of funding for which each municipality could apply deciding who receives fund ing will be based on the merits of each business plan explained macmillan it will be decided on how each project best meets the criteria of each round the size of the grant a munici pality could receive is based on a costsharing formula the province will take into account the estimated cost of the project along with a municipalitys ability tocontribute funding the superbuild j application water and sewer systems twtfof fondine ministry officials said only- projects ataddressthev structure funding pie x jrui- e application will be judged against six criteria such as need and cost efficiency and wilhbe of the york region municipalities unable tosecure partnerships said they would likely dip into capital reserves to meetany shortfalls hot covered by superbuild funding officials from several towns in the region admitted that without funding from superbuild their infrastructure projects may be put on hold or at least take more time this bridge replacement pro- ject is dependent on superbuild funding shelton said steve macdonald east gwillimburys director of corporate services said while his towns pro ject would take longer to complete if overlooked by superbuild he doubts it would be scrapped alto gether shelton said newmarket plans to askfor substantially more fund ing for larger infrastructure revital- ization projects in future rounds of superbuild with the program still in its infancy officials have yet to deter mine if there will be another round of ostar instead municipalities are now turning their attention to superbuilds second initiative sports culture and tourism which will likely stay within the same healtivandsafety theme as ostar although funding would go toward publicly owned local facilities such as arenas and community centres municipalities submitted a letter of intent in early february for the second initiative and the applica tion deadline is march 31 under the sports culture and tourism category every municipali ty in the province is eligible but with more applications and just 300 million in funding com pared to 600 million available through ostar the competition will be stiff the province is seeking support from the federal government for its ostar program projects approved for funding from superbuild will be referred to the federal liberals canada- ontario infrastructure program for more funding over the next five- years the ontario government is expected to spend 10 billion through the superbuild program with another 10billibn expected to come from the private sector and partnerships superbuild replaces past infra- stfucture programs where all three levels of government shared fund ing equally ar tl skyl0ft ski i country club v l h midweek pass monday to friday only j a m fem 1 fill i 111 i ijl 111 weekdays open to public with niqhtskiinq 9am9pm weekends private for members and their quests highest vertical in the area with 18 downhill runs and 10 km of xcountry of ski s country club uii tit uiir must t leiktiikci by iiiiitjiiir no i ruivin cvt imi krilmitmii niv liinv f id worlds fiist ipix virtual tour with streaming ski runs 905695160