Town council will consider using $657,558 in reserve funds to hook up part of the former Shevlin Wood Yard to water and sewer lines as it looks to accelerate the development of a “desperately required” new housing project.
Timing was the decisive factor in considering the expenditure of reserve funds, rather than budgeted money, to complete the work and pave the way for a developer to start building at the site, Infrastructure and Growth Manager Travis Rob told The Times after Monday’s council meeting.
“We had a few things kind of going against us with this particular development,” Rob said. “We were still working on design activities, we were still working on environmental and we were still working on a few things in the background. That developer was also working on their side, and all of the pieces kind of started to fall into place, but they didn’t start falling into place until early this year, when we already had an approved capital budget.”
The town’s agreement with an undisclosed private developer committed it to undertaking a portion of development at the location, which Fort Frances bought from Resolute Forest Products in 2018 for $1. However, the agreement came too late for the installation of utilities on the property to be added to the 2026 Capital Budget.
“We kept pushing forward design activities so that we could start estimating what the cost of these services was going to look like, but it was 100 per cent just about timing,” Rob said. “If the initial option agreement would have come forward this time last year—even July or August—we would have had preliminary things in place by November, early December and could’ve factored it into the capital budget process.”
Monday night’s decision means the town will consider an administrative report that recommends drawing upon $178,816 from the Corporate Projects Reserve Fund and $478,741 from the Sewer and Water Reserve Fund to get the work done.
Whether the finances for this project were initially budgeted for or not, reserve funds exist for this type of unexpected, yet necessary work, and Mayor Andrew Hallikas noted that as the town’s population grows, the necessity for more housing is becoming increasingly acute.
“Fort Frances is really on the cusp of some growth, both industrial and business,” Hallikas said during the council meeting. “We’re going to welcome our first flight from the new airline coming into Fort Frances soon, and we definitely need that, because there are going to be new jobs created, and with those jobs, we require housing.”
“We desperately require housing, and this is a very, very important step,” Hallikas said. “A lot of people who will be moving into these apartments will be giving up standalone houses, which will open up the housing market to young professionals and young families.”
The actual scope of work for the project, if it moves forward when brought to a future vote, would likely see the intersection of Scott Street and Reid Avenue dug up to facilitate a utility connection to the former woodyard for the housing construction. This work would go to tender and be awarded to a private construction company.
