The City of Prince George is moving ahead with a proposed $11.5 million dike along River Road, despite concerns raised about the cost of the project.
On Monday city council instructed the mayor and city staff to officially accept a $5.4 million provincial and federal grant towards the project. On Feb. 20 city council will receive a report on how to finance it's portion of project.
"We've got to choose if we want to proactive and responsible with our future, or if we want to roll the dice with our future," Coun. Cameron Stolz said. "To stand by and do nothing means we're saddling this on somebody else."
On Jan. 24 the provincial and federal governments announced $5.4 million in funding for the proposed 3.3 km dike. The proposed dike would run parallel to River Road from the Cameron Street Bridge to the CN Rail bridge.
In a report to city council, city staff said $2.5 million of the project cost could come from the city's Land Development Reserve fund. The remaining $3.56 million would need to be borrowed.
Debt payments on the $3.56 million would total nearly $280,000 per year for 20 years.
City council will need the support of the electors to borrow the $3.56 million, which can be obtained through a referendum or through the alternative approval, counter-petition method.
Coun. Brian Skakun was the only councillor who voted against proceeding to the next step in the project.
"Businesses have chosen to locate near the river. For us to take on a debt servicing cost of [almost] $300,000 when we're already laying off staff ... it's not right," Skakun said. "We're in a tough situation, financially. To take on that much debt and take that much out of the Land Development Reserve isn't right."
Skakun said flood mitigation works have already been done along River Road since the 2007-08 ice jam and flood on the Nechako River. The flood lasted 64 days, forced the evacuation of 24 homes and caused millions of damages.
The risk of another flood is low, he said, and this will mean further cuts to city services in other areas.
"What's more important in the entire community? This is one small area," he said.
Under the grant program, the city only has until March, 2014 to complete the project to be eligible for the grant.
City project manager Dave Dyer said the earthwork dike would be built just above the 200-year flood plane level. The top of the dike, which is expected to be just slightly higher than River Road itself, would be wide enough to accommodate a walking trail.
Underneath the dike will be an underground barrier to prevent groundwater from seeping underneath the road. With the existing subdrain and ground water pumps, the dike would be designed to prevent groundwater from rising on the far side of the road.
The City of Prince George has already acquired some of the land between River Road and the Nechako River where the dike will be built, Dyer said. Some additional lands will need to be purchased to allow the project to go forward.
Dredging the river or other methods of flood mitigation just simply aren't as effective as a dike in preventing flood damage, he said.
"Because of its usefulness in both an ice jam and spring freshet flood ... it is the best approach for flood mitigation," Dyer said.
