The conversation about the roads in Westlock County has moved from residents to council, and deputy reeve Brian Coleman thinks there are options in the budget to move more money toward patching the roads.
“I have driven about 50 miles of roads and about half of it was impassible. It’s mainly impassible because heavy equipment is breaking through. When we did our budget, we took $275,000 out of the gravel program and we added $250,000 into a patching program. We need to figure out how we’re going to prioritize that, and I think we need to add more money to that patching program,” he said during the May 26 council meeting.
His first option: $266,000 in what he’s counted to be additional Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding from the amount they budgeted should be directed toward patching.
“My view is, if that is in fact true, that we should allocate that to the patching program and let’s get to work,” he said with the support of Coun. Isaac Skuban.
The latter has also received calls from residents who haven’t seen a grader on their roads, and thinks council should set expectations for grader service levels.
“If we had a general idea of what (the grading schedule) is going to be, I think it would help residents a lot,” he said.
But for Coun. Dennis Primeau, who said the roads are “unbelievable,” $200,000 is not enough.
“We need some serious money to do some serious fixing. We let it go too far and now we’re really in trouble,” he said, noticing that this is an effect of cutting the transportation budget each year.
Coleman’s second proposal was to end a $1 m. shoulder pull program and divest the money toward patching over two years, except this was less popular with Coun. Fred Slobodian.
“The shoulder pull program has pretty much been a lifesaver in our areas. I’m speaking from experience here. That’s the last place we want to pull any money from,” he said.
Coleman’s counter: Sunniebend Road, fixed four years ago, is now “almost not driveable because big equipment has been breaching through.”
No specific action came out of last Tuesday, but discussions will continue at the June 9 committee of the whole meeting.
“If we want to invest more in transportation, we’ve really got to get more serious about where we’re going to cut, where we’re going to find efficiencies,” said Skuban.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @andreea_res
