After Tim Hortons threatens closure, mayor says 'no quick fix' to boil orders
After growing frustrated with the number of boil orders in the western Newfoundland community of Steady Brook, the owner of a local Tim Hortons says the restaurant may be forced to close.
Tim Hortons says it is losing business because frequent boil water orders are forcing the shop to close for hours — and sometimes even days — at a time.
But Steady Brook mayor Peter Rowsell says it's not just businesses suffering from the town's water issues.
"Every resident in this town is going through the same thing," said Rowsell
"The situation is not good. We've had a major number of boil orders …We work on service water, as a lot of small town Newfoundland [do]."
Expensive fix
The town has developed plans to drill wells on the top of Marble Mountain, but after sending a tender out this year, Rowsell said the bid the town received fell far outside its price range.
"The only bid we got was for twice what the estimated cost was going to be," he said.
"We have been advised by the provincial government to go back to tender after January and see what kind of a tender we can get."
"If that doesn't work, all the money that we've put towards these artesian wells and everything is wasted money."
He told the Corner Brook Morning Show that like a lot of small towns in this province, Steady Brook doesn't have the money to make an immediate change.
"This stuff can all be fixed, but in order to put in a fantastic water system in this town, the business that claims they can't stay here because of problems we have now, would have to leave because of the taxes we would have to charge," said Rowsell
"None of the residents would be able to afford to pay their tax bills."
No special treatment
Although Rowsell said he would hate to see the Tim Hortons close, he said that the town cannot provide special treatment for the coffee shop.
"I moved to this town 20 years ago [and] there were water issues then."
"I've got to go to Corner Brook and fill up with water all the time in order to have the water quality that I expect in my own home."
In the meantime, Rowsell says all the town can do is wait and hope for a better bid in January.
"There's no quick fix," he said.
"If I had the magical solution to water woes in rural Newfoundland, I'd be a pretty popular guy right now, I can guarantee you."
