The town of Stonewall's looking toward some major upgrades to its lagoon, to the tune of 4.6 million dollars.

Mayor Lockie McLean tells us they had a financial plan in place for the town to cover 50%, through a 20 year debenture, but that all changed, after they found out what they'd receive in grants from the federal and provincial governments.

"We got the maximum grants available," he says, "And so the feds are going to pick up 2.3 million of the project, and the province is going to pick up 1.15, for a total of 75% of the cost of the over-all project. And what this means is that we're not borrowing 2.3 of that portion, we'll only have to borrow half of that amount."

McLean points to the work of CAO Doreen Steg on the financial plan as key.

"She's the one that worked out the financing options that we had for Council," he says, "She's the one that put the application together, and pushed the province to move this project along. And we knew, with the federal government spending on infrastructure, we knew if we could get our project application in, that we had a good chance of getting some grants, and we hit the jackpot."

McLean says this allows Council to look ahead to other infrastructure projects sooner.

"You can't wait, and bury your head in the sand, and think these things don't have to be done," he says, "We know in 2021 we've got some significant debenture debt coming off, so now we can look toward the next major infrastructure project that needs to be done. And in Council's mind, that would be around 2022. When we look at it, probably the next big one would be a water treatment plant,"