MOOSE JAW — A repair that city crews made to a catch basin near William Grayson School and that a nearby resident criticized for poor work has received some attention from one city councillor.
Taxpayer Art King spoke to city council on June 23 during a public hearing about the proposed stormwater utility bylaw and, while discussing his opposition to the utility, criticized city crews for their “incompetent job” of fixing the stormwater infrastructure at the corner of Ninth Avenue Northwest and Athabasca Street West near his house.
In light of King’s comments and an email he had sent days before, Coun. Chris Warren asked city administration later in the meeting about the repair work to the road, storm drain and sidewalk. The councillor pointed out that gravel and sand build up at the location and cause localized flooding.
Warren then inquired about the repairs that crews performed, including whether the repairs were permanent, whether the city would return to fix the sidewalk and whether the drain could handle excess rain.
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, said crews replaced a catch basin and a degraded portion of the connecting pipe that had partially collapsed. Moreover, the repair to the stormwater infrastructure is permanent until the city addresses it with “more substantive work” during a future capital project on that street.
Continuing, Harlton said the work on the road and sidewalk is temporary, while crews laid down asphalt that will remain until the city fully replaces the sidewalk and road.
“The sidewalk goes onto a list of (repairs), likely next year. That is done by a contractor (because) we don’t do our own sidewalk replacement in-house,” he said. “And in a similar way, the road cut goes onto our road list and the work is likely done with public works’ resources next year.”
With the capacity issues, crews replaced the catch basin and pipe with similarly sized hardware so they can handle a one-in-two-year or one-in-five-year storm, Harlton said. City hall is aware that the stormwater system on Ninth Avenue Northwest “is not healthy” and hopes to run cameras through the pipes to attain an accurate assessment.
“My personal opinion now is that the pipe size of that storm main is probably adequate for what we need, but we’d have to do more modelling at a later date and a later time,” he added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, July 14.
