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Town of Athabasca voice concerns regarding provincial highways

MLA met with councillors at a special Feb. 11 meeting
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The Town of Athabasca councillors passed a trio of motions at their Feb. 18 meeting to address concerns with the provincial highways that pass within the municipality following a Feb. 11 meeting with Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken.

ATHABASCA - The Town of Athabasca councillors passed a trio of motions at their Feb. 18 meeting to address concerns with the provincial highways that pass within the municipality.

Interim chief administrative officer Rachel Ramey said that Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken suggested that they send him a letter to address their concerns during a special meeting with the council that took place Feb. 11.

The first motion made by Coun. Mike Arychuk directs administration to send a letter to van Dijken regarding their concerns about the conditions of Alberta Transportation’s roads within the community.

“We were told that grass cutting along the highways will be cut back this year due to budget constraints,” Ramey said in her report. “The optics of poor maintenance within the town limits reflects poorly on the town. In order to maintain an acceptable level of grass cutting along the highways the town’s required to do the additional work at our own cost.”

Coun. Tannia Cherniwchan moved the second motion that directed administration to send another letter regarding their concerns with the condition of Highway 55 east between the town and Highway 827.

“It’s one of the major highways in our areas that brings people into our community and has caused concern due to its poor condition,” Ramey said.

The third motion made by Coun. Dave Pacholok directed administration to set up a meeting with Alberta Transportation to discuss their concerns and that they invite Mr. van Dijken to attend the meeting.

van Dijken said he mentioned at the meeting that part of the roadway was getting resurfaced this summer.

“I take all the input on highway maintenance I receive as information from the council and take that to Alberta Transportation,” van Dijken said. “I encouraged the town to highlight their concerns and to send me a copy as well so I can stay informed on what is going on.”

He added council also discussed with him the status of the Highway 813 bridge replacement.

“That project continues to move forward. I do understand that it’s still in the design phase at this time,” van Dijken said.

Ramey added that Alberta Transportation is also needing to obtain some land from the Town in order to complete this project.

“Said land is an environmental conservation piece of land, so we need permission from the Federal government before we can do anything with it. It’s a complicated process.”

Council also took the time at the Feb. 11 meeting to address issues regarding red tape surrounding the applications of grants.

“I suggested they forward their concerns to the minister responsible of red tape reduction,” van Dijken continued. “I did take notes on the issues they had with the timing of grant applications. They have gotten into an issue where they are unable to acquire a grant because the timing has not been right on getting the other one.”

He added that some of the grants in question are run by the federal government.

“It’s often hard to coordinate federal and provincial grants together,” van Dijken stated.

Overall, Ramey said the meeting went very well.

“We knew we only had an hour so we wanted to get through our items as quickly as we could to ensure they were all addressed,” Ramey explained.

Bryan Taylor, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @BryanTaylorNews

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