The RM of Rockwood has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government for a 10 million dollar lagoon project. Reeve Jim Campbell says this is very exciting news because they've been trying to work out a deal with the feds for the last six or seven years. Campbell notes the community of Stony Mountain and the Stony Mountain Institution each had a lagoon and both were at their limit, adding it didn't make any sense to make two new lagoons. He says now there'll be one state of the art, aerated lagoon serving the penitentiary and the community of Stony Mountain. Campbell notes they're hoping to get the project out for tender in March and shovels in the ground by this fall, with an expected completion date in October of 2018.

He says this is a bit of a unique situation because the community had its lagoon on federal property, adding he's not aware of any other place in Canada where that happens. Campbell notes the deal the municipality worked out is that the feds are paying one hundred percent of the cost for the new lagoon, which will carry a price tag of more than 10 million dollars. He adds the RM of Rockwood will in turn take care of the lagoon for its entire life, so that would include the aeration, the chemicals and the maintenance of the grounds.

Campbell says this is great news because they have at least two developers who have been chomping at the bit for years to do some residential subdivisions and they have commercial developers knocking at their doors as well. He notes one of the proposed residential developments is more than two hundred homes, adding in the past they've always been restricted by the size and condition of the present lagoon. Campbell says they can now start letting these developers know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, because by the fall of 2018 they hope to be ready to flush all the toilets in the new subdivisions.