Athabasca County council approved the purchase of four new graders for a total of $1.7 million during their Jan. 9 meeting.
Administration’s recommendation to council was to purchase two Tier 3 Caterpillar 140M graders from Finning through the National Joint Powers Alliance program, and put the remaining two up for tender in the spring.
Director of infrastructure services Travis Wierenga said council could also choose to replace all four immediately, and noted the grader’s price has gone down from 2017 by $8,900 while its trade-in guarantee has gone up by about $15,000.
Wierenga added the county would be $35,000 below budget for each machine if they went ahead with the deal.
Coun. Dennis Willcott said he would make a motion directing administration to purchase four graders.
“To me we got to do it. I think you worked out a good deal,” he said. “We got to buy them anyways; roads come number one.”
The motion was passed with unanimous support.
Athabasca County council approved a recommendation from Public Works to trade in a problematic dozer for one with all the necessary specifications at a $441,425 value.
The new dozer will come at a trade-in cost of $30,000 to the county, according Wierenga. He said the county had purchased a 2016 Caterpillar D6N dozer through Finning last spring.
The county did not “end up getting a product we would’ve liked to,” Wierenga said, and a salesman offered to replace the unit for one with the proper specifications.
Coun. Kevin Haines made a motion to accept administration’s recommendation that the county move ahead with Finning’s trade-in offer. It was unanimously supported.
Council gave the green light to a lot consolidation bylaw that will begin the process for a new condo development within the county.
Alfred Arbter of the Kamberley Development Group Ltd. appeared before council to present information on the development.
According to the meeting minutes, the proposed plans would include 16 one-acre units marketed towards an adult community, which will be near Amber Valley in Division 5 and called Forest Acres.
Later in the meeting, council discussed what was presented to them, before passing second and third reading of Bylaw 014-2017.
Coun. Larry Armfelt said the idea is “innovative” and “serves a niche,” but urged council to make sure proper agreements are in place so they are not “blindsided.”
“As we go we dot the i’s and cross the t’s and define things all the way along,” he said. But I like what he’s doing.”
Willcott said he really likes the idea.
“When you’re living on a farm and you get older, it’s too much work … You want to move into something else and that might be the right place,” he said.
Second and third reading were passed unanimously after motions by Willcott and Armfelt.
Council had a discussion regarding quality of service roads in the Wandering River area, and how to approach repairs during budget season.
The subject was brought up by Coun. Penny Stewart, who said the road conditions are “raising some flags” for her and she has heard a lot of complaints.
“Some of those roads are unacceptable,” she said. “I know some of those are small volume traffic roads, but people still need to get to their homes, and there’s a couple cases that are really iffy.”
Wierenga provided background, that the province “built a lot of roads” for the county and handed them over to the county after they passed compaction tests.
However, Wierenga said the roads were not adequately packed and do not see a lot of traffic, so the loose gravel just sat there.
Stewart said moving forward the county needs to deal with the roads, and her concern is whether funding would come strictly out of Division 6.
“Moving forward we need to deal with these roads, and if it’s going to strictly come out of Division 6, then I might as well not worry about gravelling any other roads in my division,” she said.
Wierenga said he agrees some of the roads are in bad shape, but it is not necessarily a crisis that can be handled within the maintenance budget.
Willcott said Stewart should not worry about not having enough funds to deal with all the roads in her division.
Coun. Dwayne Rawson moved to accept the discussion as information, which was unanimously supported.
