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Renewed gas tax funding to aid town upgrades

The Town of Ponoka is excited about a decade of stable, predictable funding thanks to the early November renewal

The Town of Ponoka is excited about a decade of stable, predictable funding thanks to the early November renewal of the federal Gas Tax Agreement.

Calculated on a per capita basis, Ponoka will see $368,000 per year. While Mayor Rick Bonnett says it does not look like there will be any raise in the funding, a population increase would lead to more money.

The town will be conducting its own census in the near future to see if there has been enough growth to claim. “I would recommend we look at that for sure.”

While the money can only be used for projects such as roads or bridges, anything not used within a year is not automatically returned to the federal government. “If we didn’t have a project to send it on . . . we can bank it for a significant project,” Bonnet said.

“This year, it’s going to some railway upgrades and 50th Street upgrades,” he added.

This year the money will not be used for the construction of the north bridge project, which begins construction in July, 2015.