As 2024 comes to a close, the district of Sparwood is looking back at a year filled with development.
“It was certainly a busy year for the District of Sparwood with Teck’s new administrative building being built, we completed the Timber Landings Phase 1 and started the Westwood subdivision,” said Mayor David Wilks.
“The big one for us is the planning and approval finally by the province to move forward with our upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant which is direly needed.”
It was also a big year for new businesses coming into town.
“McDonald’s and Canco gas opened up earlier this year and Pizza Hut rolled into town so that was nice,” Wilks added.
“We’re hoping some more commercial ventures will be moving forward.”
Despite some commercial progress the year wasn’t without its challenges.
Wilks says the wastewater treatment plant has been an ongoing issue and the financial implications of the project.
“We’ve been working with the province for a number of years now to get them to move on their permitting process and as a result of that our wastewater treatment plant is way over budget,” he said.
“We were anticipating to be around $13 million but it’s now looking like close to $31.5 million. We have grants for 8 million and will really want to see if the province will increase the grants based on inflation over the last four years.”
He says they’ll have a lot of work to continue in 2025 and wishes the community a Merry Christmas.
“I’m wishing Sparwood and everybody in the East Kootenay a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and hoping everyone has happiness and good health.”
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