BONNYVILLE - Residents in the MD of Bonnyville are hoping it will be a smooth road ahead after expressing their disappointment with the condition of roads throughout the municipality.
Although they didn't attend or present their dismay together, MD property owners Bruce Chartrand and Warren Garnier shared a similar message: fix our roads.
The pair made separate pitches to council during the MD committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 5, conveying their frustrations over the state of roads throughout the region.
Chartrand focused strictly on Twp. Rd. 630, while Garnier shared photos of the depreciating roadways across the municipality.
“I’ve been all over the MD… We’re getting no maintenance on our roads and this is why they’re falling apart. Even the low traffic roads need better maintenance, not more. The money’s being spent, the equipment is there, it’s just not being utilized properly,” stressed Garnier.
In fact, the municipality owns equipment that has made Garnier green with envy.
"I drive past our road equipment out here and it makes me envious of how good of equipment you have... The dirt's right there and the equipment is right there," noted Garnier, who has between 45 and 50 years of experience building roads.
“Building it is the tough part, maintaining it's the easy part, but you need to build it properly,” he continued. “We have roads that don’t need $1-million spent on them… If a grader can’t keep a road in shape that four or five vehicles drive down everyday, there’s something wrong with our system.”
From shoulder pulls to getting it right the first time, Garnier recommended council consider their road maintenance policy.
This was something that CAO Luc Mercier had brought up to council previously, noted Reeve Greg Sawchuk.
“He said shoulder pulls were something we weren’t doing to the extent that we needed to be doing," explained Sawchuk. “Sure we have big piles of gravel, but we don’t need to be wasting them into our ditches, council does agree with you on that one.”
Garnier expressed the MD missed the opportunity to update some of the roads last spring, when the conditions were dry.
“Last spring we had the best chance we’ve ever had to do anything in our community, we didn’t have a bit of moisture from April 1 and we were dry until June 15. Thank goodness we got the rain that we did, but we had the perfect opportunity to go in with proper blades on these graders and gently pull the shoulders back. The grass was dead. It was perfect conditions,” detailed Garnier. “This isn’t a five-day of the week job. We have to work to the conditions of the year, the same as a farmer… There are certain times of year when this will work."
Chartrand also had a gear to grind with council.
He explained that although work has been done on Twp. Rd. 630, the road itself is still sub-par due to the high traffic volume from industry vehicles.
"There are maybe a dozen or 18 homes on that road and even with the big tractors... I don't even think it comes close to the amount of damage from those oil trucks."
Since 2014, $1.5-million has been spent on this road alone, with more maintenance scheduled for 2020.
Sawchuk said, "That road is going to be worked on this year, but only a segment of it."
"I see the amount of damage the trucks are doing, and I'm concerned. At what point are you going to say 'we really need to fix this and we really need to fix this properly, now?'" said Chartrand.
After a conversation with Mercier about the condition of the road, Chartrand was told a complete overhaul would cost roughly $6-million.
"We've already spent $1.5-million. When do you say when? A $6-million investment may seem like a lot in the short-term, but it's the long-term that you get out of it," Chartrand stated.
"Council only has a limited amount of money to work with, and we have hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of roads, and there are many out there that industry are on and they do break them up, so we have to prioritize," replied Sawchuk. "In this case, Twp. Rd. 630, if you look at our road priority map, it's on there and it's meant to be one of those roads that we try and funnel traffic to, and in the future, you may end up seeing more vehicles on it because of that."
He continued, "At this point in time, there's a couple of miles, maybe two and a half, that will be worked on this year. The tenders are out right now and they close Feb. 20."
Chartrand wondered if the MD "was looking at doing it properly this time."
Abid Malik, general manager of infrastructure services, explained that the work will be done up to their standards, and until "it starts falling a part," the MD will leave the road alone.
Coun. Dana Swigart said this roadway has been on his radar during his entire time on council, because as Chartrand said, it's "one of the roads that I saw that the MD was contiually rebuilding."
"We have to do this once and we have to do it right so we're not just laying cold mix on top of a poor sub-surface," he stated. "We're going to do that road in chunks, but we're going to do it once and do it right and not have to repair it."
After Chartrand shifted the conversation to dollars and cents, council explained that most of the funding the municipality receives from tax dollars is through industry, not residents.
"When you take in taxes, there are lots of locations where we're taking in a huge amount from industry, and it's allotted out. They don't get back nearly that share right next to them. A lot of it is spread out across the municipality," Sawchuk outlined. "It all goes to the numerous services, not all of it goes directly to the road, it goes to pay for all of the services that are provided."
He confirmed that roughly eight per cent of tax dollars come from residents, while a major chunk is industry.
"We get an enormous amount from industry," stressed Sawchuk. "I didn't realize it before getting into this position just how much."
Sawchuk added, depending on the amount of wear and tear the road sees because of industry vehicles will determine whether they have a discussion with the company causing the damage.
"We do have separate agreements with them on the side. If we see they're truly busting up a road, they get called in."
Swigart said, "It really does help if you talk to your councillor or to administration. Then we get things done and we know. Because if we don't know there are a bunch of people with a problem, we can't solve it."
Council accepted both presentations as information.
