Provincial disaster relief has been approved for the County of Wetaskiwin, which was hit hard by torrential rains last summer.
The county applied last year for $980,000 in funding for five projects to repair flood damage, including road and culvert repairs.
Alberta Municipal Affairs confirmed last month that funding under the Disaster Relief Program will be coming, but the amount is still to be determined.
“An Alberta Emergency Management Agency Disaster Recovery Program team lead will contact representatives from your community to assist with the delivery of the program,” says a letter from Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee Madu.
County public works director Neil Powell said the county hopes to receive the full amount.
“We’ll try,” said Powell at Thursday’s county council’s meeting. “In the next two or three months we’ll find out. We’ll be working with them.”
Some of the repairs have already been completed. Repairs to gravel roads in Division 6 and 7 and the replacement of a washed-out culvert on Range Road 31 cost about $300,000.
“There’s only so much time,” said Reeve Terry Van de Kraats. “The first two got done because they’re more immediate and the next three should get done over time.”
The damage occurred July 20-21 last year in the west end of the county after torrential rains.
“We had one night where we got six inches of rain,” said Van de Kraats. “It blew some ditches out. It blew some culverts out. It was pretty significant.”
The county will be tackling other repair work this year.