Sparwood is set to receive $703,000 from the B.C. Government to fund its Elk River Pedestrian Bridge Bank Stabilization Project, set to be completed in the summer.
Mayor David Wilks said the project is much needed in the community.
“The Elk River likes to move from time to time and in the last flood we had, it started to wash away the southern banks and started to erode part of the stabilization for part of that walkway. It’s still safe, but we would really like to shore that up,” said Wilks.
The Province said Sparwood is one of the communities that have been chosen from around B.C. to get a share of over $8.5 million in provincial emergency preparedness funding.
Grants from the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) will go to support structural flood mitigation projects, improving communities’ ability to be resilient and prepared in an emergency.
“This program illustrates collaboration at its best,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. “The benefit of a funding program like this one is that it directly responds to the needs communities identify as important to mitigating flood risk. Through this program, we can better work with local and regional governments to protect public safety through important local projects.”
With the funding, Sparwood’s project should be completed this summer.
“We dearly need to get that fixed,” said Wilks. “We have a very short window in which we’re allowed to work in the Elk River, it’s in August with low water, where fish counts are lower.”
Wilks said the funding comes as the community was already looking for RFPs (request for proposal) to move the project ahead.