Lift stations expected to go $5M over budget

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This article was published 24/05/2025 (306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon’s lift-station project is expected to go $5 million over budget.

Council on Tuesday approved an extra $1.7 million for work to happen on the new South End Lift Station, bringing the total up to $23.7 million.

“(It’s) for the benefit of growing the city,” said Mark Allard, general manager of development services.

Allard said council originally slated a maximum of $30 million for the project, which includes two lift stations, a gravity sewer and other work. But council only made $22 million of it available, which is why administration had to ask for more money on Tuesday evening.

He said the city is still within its budget right now, but is expected to spend $35 million in total, which is $5 million over budget by the time the second lift station is done.

The two lift stations, which are part of the wastewater treatment process, are located at the corner of 34th Street and Patricia Avenue and the corner of 18th Street and Patricia Avenue.

Allard said while the project is over budget, the infrastructure is necessary for future development, including homes and schools.

Council passed the extra funding unanimously.

Both Allard and Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the city has applied for grants to cover the extra costs, and Fawcett said he’s hopeful the funding will come through.

Fawcett said the $22 million originally approved by council started at $18 million when plans first started, but that the number was really an arbitrary amount and council always expected to pay $30 million for it.

“This is all part of the project, there’s no real changes,” Fawcett said in an interview with the Sun. “This is when the next phase was necessary. We weren’t not going to do it.”

He said without a lift station, growth in the city wouldn’t be possible, and that building the station is necessary for future developments.

Fawcett said the station on 34th Street should be operational this summer, and the station on 18th Street should be tendered out around the same time.

Allard explained that the first $30 million isn’t paid through taxes, but instead through fees developers pay when selling land. Those fees ultimately get tacked on to the price of a property, which would be included in the price of a new home, he said.

“Growth pays for growth,” said Allard. “So the developers that are growing the city pay for the infrastructure necessary to grow the city.”

He said the $5-million shortfall would come from taxes if the city doesn’t get any senior government grants. He said over time, as homes are bought and developments are created, the $5 million would be replenished and funds should be back to square one.

He said normally the city wouldn’t have to temporarily dip into taxpayer money, but things didn’t line up like they normally do.

“Up until this point, we’ve had sufficient capacity to grow the city,” said Allard. “It’s just gotten to a point now where the infrastructure was required before we were able to collect sufficient money.

“We just haven’t been able to collect enough money to put into the reserves to pay for these projects.”

Allard said the reason the development fund ran out of money is because the city wasn’t charging developers enough over the last five years.

“Our estimates were maybe a little bit on the low side, so we weren’t collecting as much money as we maybe should have been in the last four or five years,” he said.

The city increased some development cost charges in April, with the new rates scheduled to take effect on June 6. A public hearing is set for June 9 on proposed changes to other DCC rates.

“It’s just taken a while to get the program to full charges,” Allard said.

» alambert@brandonsun.com