Pelham, Ontario

suffered somewhat, such as roads and drainage issues. Again, it’s a challenge that the new council and town staff are meeting, head-on. In fact, the staff has put forward some great grant proposals and we have just learned that we have been nominated by the Province of Ontario for a grant that we applied for three months ago.” The grant to which Junkin refers is the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program – Rural and Northern Stream, part of a $30 billion, 10-year infrastructure program, cost-shared among federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Pelham is looking for $1.6 million from the province and $2.4 million from the federal government for the express purpose of funding what Director of Public Works, Jason Marr, calls the Pelham Street Reconstruction project. “Our roads capital budget usually averages somewhere around $3.5 million, with an overall capital budget for infrastructure between $5 and $6 million,” Marr explains. “A lot of that is made up of annual programs that we need to keep up our infrastructure, such as road resurfacing contracts. So, we’re very limited to the amount of capital expenditure that we put out in any given year, and we rely on grants to get the work done. We operate on a 20-year capital forecast, and when you’re working with a $5.5 million capital budget, annually, and you take into account all your annual programs out of that, you’re left with very little money to go ahead and invest heavily in your infrastructure, so this particular grant opportunity is to take care of a huge need in the town of Pelham.” Pelham Street is approximately 2.5 kilometers in length and is one of the major north/south arteries between the town and the neighboring municipality of Welland. “This section of roadway has a semi-urban cross-section, which means the majority of it doesn’t have curb and gutter,” Marr reports. “It has deep ditches and, currently, there is no safe pedestrian access in the southern part. Several years ago, as a result of a fatality, the town did install a concrete sidewalk on one section of the road, closer to the downtown area, however, there remains a large portion of the street that is