Cluny sewer financing scenarios show monthly charges of up to $107.51

By Melissa Crispin-Piche Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Replacing a wastewater line in Cluny could carry a substantial monthly cost for utility customers, according to financing scenarios included in Wheatland County’s Oct. 20 council agenda package.

The illustration divides repayment for a $650,000 project among 39 utility accounts.

With a 50 per cent subsidy, the estimated charge would be $53.76 a month per account. If users covered the full repayment, that figure would rise to $107.51.

Over a year, those amounts would add approximately $645 or $1,290 to an account’s costs.

The figures are financing examples. They do not establish a charge residents have been approved to pay.

The Cluny work involves the Second Avenue wastewater line. A separate illustration for work on Crawford Street in Gleichen shows monthly charges ranging from $12.27 to $20.45.

Both examples show how infrastructure costs can fall on a small customer base. In Cluny, the amount of county support would make a difference of more than $50 a month in the scenarios presented.

The potential project charges are separate from the county’s 2027 utility-rate changes. Council’s approval of the annual fee bylaw does not, by itself, approve the sewer-financing amounts.

As capital-budget discussions continue, the remaining questions include how much support the county would provide and how much users would be expected to repay.

Until those choices are made, the illustrations offer a measure of the potential household cost rather than a final bill.