Williams Lake Council discussed the implementation of asset management framework.
Talks surrounded on if the City is in need of an asset management program, but was noted some grants bring up the program, which could affect getting that funding in the future.
Chief Administrative Officer, Gary Muraca breaks down what this addition would do for the City.
“As you get into more expensive assets for the City of Williams Lake, it gives you a more strategic approach to managing those assets, where you’re not relying on breaking down maintenance, you’re actually being proactive,”
“so when you talk about being proactive, you’re not paying four times the cost if you address it earlier.”
The implementation of an asset management program would not only help catch problems before they’re at the worst point, but in turn could help keep taxes from going up.
Muraca provided an example with roads, and how the program could prevent costly reconstruction.
“If you start what’s called a pavement quality index of 10, and you start going down to a 6 or something like that and you do an overlay, you go back up to a 9, if you let it go past a certain point, it just falls right off the map and then you can’t save it.”
“Then you’re going to reconstruction, that’s four times the cost, so there’s a very small window where you can do rehabilitation before it becomes reconstruction.”
The resolution to include $110,000 to the 2024 budget for the asset management program was approved.