-First phase likely to cost more than $10 million-

OSOYOOS TIMES-October 8, 2008-

By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times

Rural Osoyoos Area A Director Mark Pendergraft said there has to be a shovel in the ground by the end of this month or the easement agreements necessary to complete the Northwest Sewer Project will expire.
When the project was first conceptualized roughly 20 years ago, easements that were once part of the Canadian Pacific Railway line were left allotted by the rail company for the installation of a sewage pipe to the northwest shore of Osoyoos Lake.
Agreements with the owners of properties where these easements are located have been extended a number of times in anticipation of the project, but the last extension expires Oct. 31.
If the project isn't underway by that time and the property owners won't allow a further extension of the agreement, the sewage pipe may have to be laid in another location, possibly under the lake, Pendergraft said.
Osoyoos Mayor John Slater said that in order to get the project underway, a letter of irrevocable credit is needed from Georgia Laine Developments, the developers of the Willow Beach Resort which will be built at the head of the lake.
Slater said the letter is currently being drafted by Town lawyers and the final letter would be sent to the developers after Osoyoos town council approves it.
Last year, a grant of $4.5 million was secured from the federal and provincial governments for the project, which was originally meant to hook 121 homes on the lake's northwest shore to the Town's sewage system.
However, finding more cash for the project was a problem until the Town of Osoyoos signed a memorandum of understanding with the resort's developers in April in which the developers pledged to cover the remaining costs of the project if the resort were to be approved by the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).
Under the agreement, the resort would also be hooked up to the Town's sewage system and a twinned water system would service the resort and homes along the northwest shore of the lake.
The resort application passed third reading before the RDOS board in August.
Although the Town's engineers are still doing the final numbers on how much the project will cost, Slater said the first phase of the project, which includes hooking up the 121 homes as well as the first 200 units built at the resort, will cost roughly $10.5 million.
So the developer will have to cough up $5.5 million for that phase, he added.
The second phase, which would include hooking the Osoyoos landfill and the rest of the resort's proposed 1,088 units to the system, will cost about $4 million, Slater said.
Getting water to the resort through a twinned system” where homes receive potable and irrigation water through separate lines” would cost another $5 million.
Osoyoos town council would need to approve a bylaw to extend the sewage system to the northwest shore, Slater said, and the provincial Community Development Ministry still needs to approve the entire project.
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