ATHABASCA – The July 17 weekend is shaping up to be a busy one on the Athabasca River, as the Athabasca Riverboat Association plans on holding its annual jet boat rally, however, work on the new bridge and on the new river intake system is also scheduled to begin just a few days before.
Athabasca town council has discussed the event at the last two council meetings, the last being May 4, where councillors heard the organization was unable to change the date of the rally to the weekend before.
At the April 20 meeting, a request to reserve the parking lot at the river front for boaters on July 17 was up for discussion which councillors were happy to oblige. Coun. Ida Edwards brought up the work on the new river intake project that is supposed to start that week. The initial work on the new bridge is also slated for the same week.
At this point the exact start dates for the two river projects is unknown, but both are allowed to begin their work as of July 15, and contractors will be on tight schedule to get their work done while conditions are favourable.
CAO Rachel Ramey told council she had reached out to organizers of the jet boat rally to suggest the event be moved to July 10, as instructed by council, but it was already too late to change the date. Ramey said the parties involved have agreed to maintain open communication channels as the event draws closer.
“I explained the situation that there's potentially the water intake project that will be taking place and there is potentially the bridge project beginning — both the bridge project, and the water intake project have permission to begin July 15. So, they are aware,” she said.
The jet boat rally will go ahead depending on the provincial health restrictions that are in place at the time, but plans were well underway before the potential conflict was discovered.
“If they do get in the water on the fifteenth and they only have two months to do their work, they're considering having three barges on the river, but they do have to leave the waterway open for passage,” said Edwards. “So, and if the bridge has work being done and they have a passage, as long as the Athabasca Riverboat Association is aware they may have a bottleneck between those two sections of river that is not very big, when you start moving around with jet boats.”
Ramey clarified that the association was willing to change the route, depending on whichever scenario they faced.
“Typically, they head to the west when they begin, but if these projects are taking place, they'll just head straight north, and avoid all of the congestion in the area,” she said.
A motion to approve the original request for exclusive use of the parking lot until 2 p.m. July 17 was passed, and the town will also provide barricades. A second motion to inform the Athabasca Farmers Market its usual space will not be available that day was also passed.
