CastleGlenn Consultants Inc. will host another public open house (POH) in Boyle, Athabasca County manager Gary Buchanan informed council at last Thursday’s county council meeting.
At the POH, CastleGlenn will present its analysis of prospective alignments — including its preferred alignment — in the Highway 63 twinning study “on the east side of the railway corridor,” according to a letter from the company.
The presentation will be held at the Boyle and District Community Centre on Sept. 17 from 5–8 p.m.
The Highway 63 twinning study has been contested by ratepayers in the area surrounding Boyle, particularly farmers, some of whom allege twinning the highway will cut through their fields and cost them thousands of dollars in coming years.
Council approved a tender for $474,098 worth of maintenance on seven county bridges located along the Tawatinaw River, Pine Creek and a Dapp Creek tributary.
The project was awarded to Bridgemen Services Ltd., which submitted a bid after a call to tender was issued Aug. 14.
The project includes traffic accommodation, the removal and erection of superstructures, timber caps, timber bridge rails, pile banding, the supply and driving of H-piles, and sistering of timber stringers, according to a county statement.
An anticipated completion date has not been announced; the county has stated it is largely weather dependent.
County councillor Doris Splane asked director of infrastructure services Brian Adamkewicz if anything can be done to make Highway 663 any safer as it approaches the Highway 63 junction.
On June 24, a small vehicle travelling on Highway 663 entered Highway 63 and struck the side of a semi tractor-trailer hauling gasoline. Both vehicles caught on fire.
“We’ve had numerous vehicles that have gone right through to the field. This one just happened to be a collision,” said Splane.
She suggested to Adamkewicz that a letter should be sent to Alberta Transportation asking if rumble strips may be installed to warn drivers of the blind intersection around the 663 curve.
Council passed a motion to direct administration to inquire about installing rumble strips on Highway 663 approaching Highway 63.
A letter to council from Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) dated Aug. 7 was presented for information.
The letter from BCE & Bell Inc. executive vice-president Mirko Bibic to county Reeve David Yurdiga explained, “Bell and Canada’s other leading wireless service providers are urging the federal government to close loopholes in its wireless policies that favour major U.S. wireless companies, like Verizon Communications, over Canadian companies.”
Buchanan said the letter comes a little late in the game, making reference to the Final Mile Program the county has already progressed on with MCSNet to fill in gaps in high-speed wireless Internet throughout the region.
Nevertheless, Bibic submitted to Athabasca County that American companies such as Verizon, which he said is “four times bigger than Canada’s entire wireless industry,” should not be permitted to purchase spectrum (“airwaves used to carry voice calls and data”) at a lower overall price than Canadian companies.
Moreover, Bibic claimed “industry experts” are saying that these American companies will not serve areas such as Athabasca County, but “instead focus entirely on large urban markets,” which he said could mean “Canadian operators will be forced to focus our investments in urban areas, too, as well as reduce jobs in order to compete.”
Bibic asked Yurdiga to contact MP Brian Jean before September “to voice … concerns over federal policies that give unfair advantages to giant U.S. companies and undermine future wireless investment in (Athabasca).”
Council did not pass a motion related to the letter’s request.
