Following a funding request from the Village of Carbon, Kneehill County council declined the request for $280,000 in funding to fix the east campground water line and Carbon Swimming Pool.
Mayor Bryan Peever and Deputy Mayor Kelly Garrett came to council seeking the funding in the hopes of “much needed repairs”.
“Unfortunately we have discovered a number of issues of financial impact to the Village of Carbon,” said Mayor Peever.
The first and most concerning to the pair was the east village campground water supply as it is no longer a viable method of supplying fresh drinking water.
In order to solve this problem, a new fresh water line is required.
It will be installed from their new ball diamond across Highway 836 and directly drilled to the existing campground infrastructure.
Fire pits, picnic tables, gravel, fence replacement from flooding earlier this year and more make up an estimated cost of $200,000 as well as repairs to the Village’s swimming pool at $80,000.
“Years of neglect leaves the pool unusable for the 2019 season. The pool liner will require extensive repair and resurfacing,” said Garrett.
“Both projects have a real impact on the village of Carbon citizens and the many Kneehill County residents that come and use our facilities each year,” she said.
Council ultimately declined the request but directed administration to review policies on outside party funding requests.
Churchill Rural Water System rehabilitation scope
A Kneehill County resident sent a letter to council expressing desire to connect to the Churchill Water System that runs throughout the county.
The current project to rehabilitate the rural water system provides limited new construction of waterlines.
The project mainly addresses the operational issues with the current system as it is and includes the construction of a reservoir and pump house, the addition of a bulk water station, waterlines re-sized/re-aligned and a couple of kilometres of new waterline.
All current users will be required to have flow control and pressure regulation installed as part of the project, which will be performed by County personnel.
Some current users connected to a current waterline that is to be re-sized or re-aligned will have their service line disconnected and then reconnected to this new waterline.
The operational issues that are being addressed through this project are the lack of storage capacity within the system, an engineered solution to providing consistent flow and pressure throughout the water system, protection from limited water supply to residents, and prolonging the life of infrastructure.
No development or residences were specifically selected to receive water, however, limited new construction was added because it was felt that the area was within the core of the current system.
The water lines are being placed to better service an already serviced area.
This project is not the same as our recent water projects when water lines were constructed throughout an entire area and all residences within this area were required to have a riser installed on their property line.
The system will be rehabilitated to the point that Kneehill County will be able to accept new users based on the current policies.
The pump house and reservoir will be constructed to allow some expansion to the Churchill Water System without altering the current system.
With the infrastructure being put in place through this project, future expansion of water lines should be possible with minor upgrades, depending on the scope off those expansions.
It could be proposed that the Churchill water system is expanded over time by adding new water lines to new areas each year.
Council received the report of the Churchill Rural Water Rehabilitation Project and confirms the scope of the project as originally approved, to address operational issues with the current system.
A high level estimate of installing a waterline could be stated as $50/meter or $50,000 per kilometre but it was mentioned that this estimate is just for discussion purposes as many variables would come into play depending on pipe size, topography, soils, possible infrastructure additions like valves.
A survey was completed by Kneehill County several years ago asking if landowners would be interested in receiving water if it was possible.
It is administration’s understanding that the survey was sent to all landowners whether a residence was present on the quarter or not.
The results of the survey suggested that a small majority was not interested.
The survey results were presented to the Council of the time and received as information.
Fire engine approved
A replacement fire engine is expected to join the County’s fleet after council approved vehicle funding at the regular meeting.
The money will come from the Capital Replacement Funds to purchase a replacement Fire Engine in 2019, with the remaining funds to come from the Capital Equipment Reserve in the 2019 Budget.
A deposit of 10 per cent at $52,000 was required ahead of schedule plus the chassis payment at $150,000.
Making this purchase now rather than next year allowed the new fire chief to review their fleet and provide further input for next year’s truck replacement as the Acme engine and Torrington tanker are due in 2020.
“Purchasing a fourth truck the same year as the other three engines will allow four engines to have similar builds and ease of operations between them,” said Debra Grosfield in her recommendation to council.
Horseshoe Canyon Master Plan
The Horseshoe Canyon Master Plan includes concepts for improving and developing Horseshoe Canyon to create new experiences and recreation opportunities, supporting Kneehill County tourism and economic development.
Council was not committed to developing the full plan, only select concepts as recommended by administration.
Council adopted the Horseshoe Canyon Masterplan in principle and directed administration to bring forward select strategies from the plan for 2020 budget deliberations.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
