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lake placid funding

Lake Placid Road: like waiting for Godot Blame it on the feds... and the province.

Lake Placid Road: like waiting for Godot Blame it on the feds... and the province. The two senior governments don't seem to have their act together when it comes to doling out infrastructure grant money to spark improvements to Whistler's Lake Placid Road, say municipal staff. "We believe it's politics" that is slowing up the infrastructure hand-outs, says Steve Black, Whistler's manager of transportation. The resort municipality has a cool $1 million in the bank waiting for an additional $900,000 grant from the federal/provincial infrastructure program. The money had been applied for to meet a May, 1997, deadline imposed by the program, but municipal staff have heard nothing from the senior levels of government since. "The money's on the books," Black says of the municipality’s share. Plans are to re-pave Lake Placid Road west of the highway, adding gutters and sidewalks, street lighting and road-side parking. A grant from B.C. Hydro for the same project is in peril if the government grant doesn't come soon, Black says. The $100,000 from B.C. Hydro would help pay to bury overhead wires. "There's money in the pot every year for this," Black says. "We've asked B.C. Hydro to re-allocate the money if it's not used, instead of returning it to their general revenues." There's no guarantee that Whistler will get the government funds, Black says. "We hope to be on the list, but there's no end in sight when the decision will be made."