Few clouds, Reeve's Ramblins
Thankfully the summer has provided some much needed heat as crops and grassland are looking a lot better than this spring. It may not be a bumper crop, but the way the spring started, I’ll take an average crop. It never ceases to amaze me how, in May, we were fighting excess moisture and in August having to put a fire ban in place due to dry conditions. While we may have our weather issues in Southern Alberta compared to some of this year’s global disasters, I’m grateful to live where I do.
As with agriculture, Mother Nature has provided the municipality an opportunity to get caught up. A commitment was made in June to have roads which were damaged this spring repaired by harvest. It was apparent, that with the amount of damage that had been done, the only way to accomplish this and still accommodate our regular work was to have some outside help. The municipality hired a total of 5 local contractors at a cost of just over 2 million dollars for the last few months in an effort to repair infrastructure and have roads passable for the fall and winter season.
The Province played a large part in helping out with disaster funding to achieve this as the Disaster Recovery Program announced by the Province enabled the work to repair municipal infrastructure to move ahead quickly. Many of our municipal road construction projects were put on hold this spring in order to focus on culvert maintenance and installation and maintenance of the existing road structure. A culvert replacement and installation list has been developed and we will continue to replace and install this important piece of infrastructure over the next few years, as time and budget allows.
The issue of drainage is a complicated one. There has to be cooperation between landowners, Municipality’s, Irrigation Districts and Alberta Environment for a lasting and long-term solution to be found. Overland flood water needs to be controlled in a responsible way as it can impact each of the organizations above in a negative way. Retaining water up stream and allowing the water adeadequate time to work its way through a drainage network is the best practice. In July a committee comprised of representatives from Alberta Environment, Alberta Agriculture and Municipal Affairs, the MD of Taber and four Irrigation Districts was set up in an effort to work together and find a solution to address run-off from high rainfall and snow melt events. The expectation is to establish an area drainage plan that works for all. This is a huge undertaking and will take some time to achieve but it’s a promising first step.
This summer has seen a number of other projects under way throughout the municipality, resulting in one of our most aggressive construction years in our history. The Highway 3 Regional Water project was completed and water is now flowing to the hamlet of Grassy Lake. The Vauxhall Regional Commission water project has started and is slated for completion next year. Throughout the MD this year 74 kilometers of road have been rehabilitated including the narrowing, re-side sloping and re-crowning of gravel roads. A total of 6.4 kilometers of cement stabilized road has been constructed along with 8 kilometers of pavement that will soon be added to our road network. In addition the Grassy Lake waste water lagoon expansion to accommodate the growing population in hamlet (nearing 750 people), the Johnson’s Addition water / waste water study, the rehabilitation of the hamlet of Enchant waste water lagoon along with the ongoing maintenance of 2471 kms of municipal road are other ongoing projects.
The hamlet of Enchant has had almost 2000 meters of aging water distribution line replaced, and construction is now complete after some very frustrating summer, fall and spring construction weather that delayed completion (Thank you for your patience).
In conclusion, a thank you goes out to MD council and municipal staff for their commitment and cooperative spirit towards the betterment of your municipality.
Brian Brewin, Reeve