The City of Kimberley is seeking a grant to cover the majority of the cost of a proposed flood mitigation project estimated to cost around $950,000.
City Council approved a grant application that would cover $750,000 of the construction if it is approved, and the City would then budget to fund the remaining $200,000.
The project is planned to be built near Coronation Park and will displace sports teams that use the field while it’s being built.
“This project is expected to impact the baseball fields at Coronation Park for one season, the project would be expected to start, if we get the grant, in 2021, that would give the sports teams an opportunity to find alternate fields for one season,” said Kimberley Mayor Don McCormick. “Following the project, the baseball fields would be expected to be back in working order again, and in fact, the field would be much improved as part of the project.”
The construction of the flow management system is part of a continual effort to protect parts of the town that are susceptible to flooding.
“In 2012, when we had probably our worst flood in recent memory, the downtown area and many of the homes along Wallinger Avenue ended up getting flooded,” McCormick said to MyEastKootenayNow.com. “This particular project is one in a series of ongoing things that we’ve been doing to help mitigate the impacts of Kimberley Creek and Lois Creek overflowing their banks.”
If the grant is approved, the construction of the project is scheduled to begin in 2021.
