Beiseker Village councillors raised concerns at a meeting on Sept. 28 regarding the amount of potholes still left to fix, specifically on Third and Seventh Avenues, as the summer weather drifts away and fall sets in.
Jo Lambert, Beiseker chief administrative officer, said Public Works had been working tirelessly to patch the Village’s roads, but an increase of moisture frozen in the ground from a wet fall last year has resulted in more holes appearing in the spring.
“We got an exceptional number of frost boils, which cause pot holes,” she said. “We probably have three times the amount of pot holes then we would normally have.”
With one bag of cold asphalt mix left this season, the Village is trying to complete as much road maintenance as possible, but the temperature must also remain above 10 C to 12 C with the sun shining or else the mixture will not stick in the hole, she said.
Councillor Warren Wise said he was concerned the Village had been waiting too long for the weather to be just right and the window for that may have past.
“The argument all summer was that we’ve been waiting for warmth and now it’s gone,” Councillor Warren Wise said.
Mayor Ray Courtman remained positive the weather would hold up.
“I’d hate to see it go all winter like that,” Courtman said. “I sure would like to see them spend some time on Seventh (Avenue).”
Deputy Mayor Al Henuset, Councillors Dave McKenzie and Karen Ursu showed concern for the pothole problem still facing Beiseker, but encouraged administration to do the best it can to push forward with the work.
“Hopefully if the weather stays warm enough in the afternoons we can get that done,” Lambert said.
Reshingling
Funding has been approved to re-shingle the Municipal Office - formerly the CP train station - which has started to leak.
“(The shingles) probably haven’t been replaced since the building was built 100 years ago,” Lambert said.
The Village received $17,280 from a heritage building fund grant through the provincial government meant to match half the estimated cost of installing cedar shingles, as a heritage building must use original material for repairs.
The amount quoted, however, did increase to $43,640 and council agreed to dig a little deeper into the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding and allocate another $9,080 to its half in the hopes of getting the repairs done before winter comes.
“It sounds like a good project for MSI funding,” Courtman said. “We desperately need the roof done.”
Funding denied
The request by owners of a driveway on Third Avenue to have the Village cover half the material costs for repairs, an estimated $325, after it was dug up to fix a leaking water line was denied by council.
“It sets a precedent,” Ursu said about the material costs if council had agreed to pay it.
Lambert did add the concrete was not cut properly before it was removed from the ground, which left jagged edges instead of clean ones and she said the Village would cover the approximately $600 to square the edges of the concrete up.
“It wasn’t their fault it wasn’t ripped up properly,” she said.
