The City of Lloydminster is delaying two capital projects to a future year as it pursues grant funding to cover some of the costs.
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The delayed projects include a traffic light upgrade at the intersection of 50 Ave. and 62 St., as well as the trail and sidewalk improvement program. According to administration, each project is expected to cost $590,000.
The two projects are on hold until grant funding kicks in. In the meantime, the money originally set aside for them will be used for other city needs.
“What administration is proposing is, that new trail section will be put to a future capital budget year and rehabilitation will move forward in 2026,” said Jordan Newton, senior manager of parks and green spaces, City of Lloydminster.
At the March 23 regular council meeting, Newton explained this is the first year the city’s looked at repairing its trails.
“For a number of years, we’ve done trail improvements in Bud Miller All Seasons Park as a part of the parks’ projects,” he said. “This year was the first year we proposed starting to go back and rehabilitate our aging trail sections as part of our active transportation network.
“For 2026, we crafted that new project name, that’s the trail and sidewalk improvement program.”
Coun. David Lopez warned that delaying the projects could cause costs to balloon, noting the city has seen similar price spikes with past capital works.
“Neither project was urgent, urgent, urgent, today, had to be done. That’s why we thought delaying it a year would be OK,” said Dion Pollard, city manager.
“I believe it was around the $600,000 mark that we’d be relinquishing (if they didn’t delay).”
He says it could be a talking point with the provincial government in Saskatchewan at the upcoming Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention, which council will attend from April 12-15.
“It’s certainly an advocacy topic to take to SUMA if we have a chance with the transportation minister and asking that question,” said Pollard.
Newton identified the specific city sections slated for rehabilitation.
“We have a few intersections in mind, trail sections we know we want to prioritize, our main trail trunk throughout our community,” he said. “(It) starts around the Winston Churchill neighbourhood, heads west into Alberta along 27, 29 St. and we’ll ultimately head north near the Comp.”
Council approved the change in funding, delaying the traffic lights intersection upgrade and the trail and sidewalk improvement program.
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