The 2013 Town of Athabasca capital budget was tabled last Tuesday due to an overwhelming turnout of 47 Street residents who would like to see the road paved.
After hearing the delegation from Lyall Marshall on behalf of residents, council made the decision to table their capital budget until their next council meeting to give them time to discuss it at a committee of the whole meeting.
Council wanted to look at the possibility of adding the paving to the capital budget, or the possibility of making the street accessible to local traffic only.
Councillor Tim Verhaeghe made the motion to table the budget.
“This proposed budget does not include paving 47 Street. I have always been an advocate of paving 47 Street to some extent and we have a huge delegation here tonight in favor of that,” Verhaeghe said. “There are some alternatives to spending millions of dollars on paving the road and I think we should put this off for a bit to rethink it.”
More than 30 people came out to support the delegation to council by Marshall, who even presented a petition to council.
Marshall commented on the turnout, and said there were many more residents who would have liked to attend, but were unable.
“The group behind me today are residents of Pioneer Place, Evergreen Terrace and Heritage Place who share the problems and concerns related to 47 Street and support the presentation,” Marshall said.
Marshall explained to council that the Old Colinton Highway, or 47 Street, is one of the oldest roads into Athabasca, and has a lot of traffic throughout the year.
“It is estimated that 95 per cent of the vehicle traffic on 47 Street are non-residents to the street,” he said.
“Rather, traffic is entering or exiting from other parts of town onto the old highway.”
Marshall not only mentioned the amount of traffic, but the amount of dust the vehicles kick up, which is a considerable issue for the residents.
Marshall gave council the opportunity to experience the dust first-hand if they doubted his report.
“If any council members question the severity of our dust problem, I would gladly offer them an invitation to come and clean one of the decks after a dusty, hot day,” he said. “We have nine decks that face the road, so if need be we could accommodate all council members.
“You would need at least an hour and a half, and I should warn you it may be necessary to start on the top balconies as the dust and sand from the cleaning filters down onto the lower balconies.”
Marshall said what the town is currently doing to control the dust problem is not working.
“The temporary or short-term measures directed to the dust problems is simply a waste of taxpayers money,” he explained.
“These dollars cannot be recovered. The money spent on calcium chloride dust control, gravel and grading over the past few years would have been more than enough to fund the paving costs.”
Marshall asked the town if, in the event the road is not paved, it could be designated for local traffic only, and reducing the speed limit to keep dust to a minimum.
Council will address the concerns of 47 Street during an upcoming committe of the whole meeting, and will bring it back to council for a decision for the next council meeting on June 4.
