By COLE BRENNAN
Athabasca Advocate Staff
ATHABASCA – An impassioned plea from a councillor was not enough to get a $3.2-million road into the budget for 2024, even as members of the public continue to express their displeasure with its state.
Athabasca County councillors approved two capital projects during their July 25 meeting, but residents in the northern part of the county may be more interested in what wasn’t included: the Plamondon Connector Road.
“The Plamondon Connector, as we see from the transportation master plan, has the highest daily traffic count and is a major economic corridor,” said Coun. Gary Cromwell, who was elected in Division 6 where the road resides.
“I frequently get complaints about busted windows, and when that road isn’t passable, people take the Bluejay Road.”
Cromwell had proposed the road — Range Road 172 — be added to the list of capital projects during the July 16 committee of the whole meeting, but his fellow councillors disagreed: the motion was defeated by a 6-2 vote.
Cromwell and Coun. Tracy Holland were in favour, and Coun. Camille Wallach was absent.
“I would like to see the list of options. We have policies around this,” said Reeve Brian Hall. “We should be doing the ranking right now to see what the top five projects are … this particular piece of roadway, our updated roads report describes it as in good condition.”
The connector road is in the southern part of the division, just north of Grassland. It connects Wandering River to Plamondon and provides quicker access to the William J. Cadzow Hospital in Lac La Biche, the closest medical centre for the county’s northern residents.
Joseph Jenkins grew up in that part of the county — his parents Allan and Lorraine have been farming in the Breynat area for decades. Jenkins said as a kid, he remembered people going around with petitions to get the road paved, but it never happened.
“That’s where we get that alienation feeling you know, when projects that are important to residents in the Wandering River area don’t get done,” he said.
“We’ve been hearing, ‘We’re going to pave it next year, we’re going to fix it next year’ so long it’s become a running joke.
“Somebody told me this time, ‘Well, at least they didn’t say this time that they’ll pave it next year.’”
Administration said the current gravel lock is forcing some “larger boulders” to the surface of the road, and the consistent traffic means it is one of the busier roads for the area’s grader operator.
“Sometimes you need four-wheel drive to go down the road, depending on how long the rain lasts for,” said Jenkins, whose family uses the road every day to drive between farming fields.
“I’ve had an accident on that road, my sister-in-law had an accident due to the rough road conditions.”
Councillors didn’t rule out the project entirely, but opponents of the motions stressed the need for more information on why the paving was needed, as well as a better awareness of other possible candidates.
“We need some understanding of why we’re picking this first,” said Coun. Rob Minns. “That’s what happened to council before, they were paving roads in the middle of nowhere.
“That’s why this policy came into place.”
Policy 3243, Road Paving Priority Criteria, outlines the process councillors should go through before approving paving projects.
“These criteria would provide equality of road service within all areas of the county, by taking into consideration long-term transportation needs,” reads the background for the document.
There are seven different criteria for roads, including residential density, traffic volumes, and growth potential. Each criterion is given a point rating – although not all categories are worth the same number of points – and possible projects are tallied up for comparison purposes.
“We’re talking about spending significant money without looking at our priorities. We’re talking about a $3-million project, (and) we have members who are not at the table right now. We haven’t talked to ratepayers at all,” said Hall.
“I will insist we must follow our policy; we can’t just ignore it when we choose to. I’m concerned about the path we’re heading.”
