Municipal Asset Management Plan
Maintaining & Improving Infrastructure Assets
The Municipality of Tweed is comprised of a main urban centre, a large rural component and five smaller hamlets within the rural area. The municipal infrastructure is an essential part of each of these areas. The urban centre is defined by its municipal services - water and sewer, streets, sidewalks and facilities. In the rural areas roads and bridges are key with more than 50 bridges and over 500 km of roads, many of which were at one time owned, managed and financed by the County of Hastings upper tier.
The Municipality's ability to maintain, upkeep, and improve its infrastructure assets is a major factor in determining growth and sustainability. Careful and responsible asset management is critical to the overall goal of providing municipal services efficiently and cost effectively.
The Municipality of Tweed created an Asset Management Plan to compile and examine data on its assets and to develop a strategy to manage the existing and future infrastructure needs. An asset management committee was established, consisting of Council, senior and contract staff. The committee initiated the process by identifying the major categories which comprise the municipality's infrastructure: Bridges, Buildings and Facilities, Fleet, Lands, Roads, Streets, Sidewalks, Storm Sewers, Streetlights, Waste Disposal, Water Treatment and Distribution, and Wastewater Treatment and Collection. All current and exiting resources relevant to the municipal infrastructure were compiled: records, reports, mapping, PSAB data. Gaps in the existing data were identified and a process put in place to retrieve and improve reserves necessary for a complete and comprehensive plan. The committee determined which areas would benefit from outside expertise. Contact was made with the appropriate engineers for followup information where needed. Agencies such as Ontario Good Roads Association and Ontario Clean Water Agency were utilized for information exchange. The County of Hastings was an invaluable resource for GIS mapping and data updates.
Using the Ministry of Infrastructure's Building Together Guide, staff implemented a process to determine the state of municipal infrastructure, the desired levels of service, the management of the infrastructure assets, and current and future financing. Each of the infrastructure categories were assessed, rated and prioritized using this criteria. Data was organized in a comfortable format for review by Council, staff and public. The plan includes a component for annual evaluation and both short-term and long-term implementation schedules.
A copy of the
Municipality's Asset Management Plan may be viewed by clicking here.
