By Mark Squibb | Nov. 26
The Town of Bay Bulls has applied for provincial funding for a number of road upgrades, but Mayor Harold Mullowney is cautioning council not to get its hopes up.
“The odds of getting funding are low. I’ve attended the MNL (Municipalities Newfoundland) conference, by Zoom, over the last few days, and the Minister (Municipal Affairs) said they were prioritizing urgent situations requiring water and sewer for the most part,” said Mullowney during the November 1o meeting of council. “They also said they were not funding a huge wish list. They were trying to keep their funding down to amounts below a million dollars, so that they could spread the money further among communities.”
Nevertheless, Bay Bulls applied for funding for three different projects.
The first was for completion of the Irishtown Road upgrade at a total cost estimate of $955,000, with the province and the town splitting the cost 50/50. A portion of the road is already being upgraded from surplus funds for the St. John's Road project, which was funded under a 90/10 cost share formula with the province paying the bigger share.
Next up, was upgrades on Winnonish Drive at a cost of $371,000, at a 50/50 cost share rate.
The third and final application was for upgrades to Northside Road and Bread and Cheese at a cost estimate of $1.5 million. The proposed cost sharing formula on that would be 40/50/10 for the federal, provincial, and municipal governments respectively.
Mullowney did hold out some hope for the applications for Irish Town Road and Northside Road.
“I’m hopeful that we might have a shot at the roadwork we already have under construction, because there are serious water issues on Irish Town Road, and the Northside has some serious issues with the possibility of erosion along that coast there,” he said.
Mullowney had introduced the funding request as “probably the most important piece of work on the agenda tonight.”
