BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK — In order to use up some unexpected grant money and draw down the division’s reserves, Pembina Hills School Division trustees passed a motion at their May 25 meeting to approve roughly $1.4 million in capital projects, which include cleaning up contaminated sites at the Barrhead bus yard and former Vimy School site.
Secretary-treasurer Heather Nanninga said that because of unexpected grant funding from Alberta Education, the division would be looking at running an operating surplus of $1.2 million if it didn't use that money.
This is problematic because the government is looking at clawing back school division reserves and a surplus would simply go into reserves.
As such, the facilities department has come up with some projects that require attention, the first being some repairs and upgrading to the facilities and transportation office.
Nanninga reported the facilities department discovered some significant water damage to the support structures under the facilities and transportation building, along with some "pretty substantial” mold issues that have been building for several years.
Approximately $173,000 in work absolutely must be completed to ensure the building is safe, but the department also wants to do some additional work to prevent further water damage.
In addition to the provincial grant money, Nanninga suggested they could draw on $245,000 in the facilities department’s reserves, another $210,000 in board and system administration reserves and the superintendent’s “contingency” fund of $329,000.
The second project includes a series of small repairs to the actual Pembina Hills administration building, which the division shares with the County of Barrhead.
These small projects, which include repaving the parking lot and replacing the concrete sidewalk leading to the traffic lights, are estimated to cost $108,000.
However, Nanninga noted the County of Barrhead had already approved a $54,000 contribution to the repairs in early May, so that just leaves Pembina Hills to cover the other $54,000. Funding sources include the provincial grant revenue and board and system administration reserves.
The third project involves cleaning up soil contamination at the Barrhead bus yard as the result of a leak from an underground fuel tank at some point between the 60s and 90s.
This contamination was discovered when the last fuel tank was removed in 1998 but the division opted not to address it at the time.
Since then, the contamination has very slowly spread, and at some point it will go under the bus shop, which will necessitate an even more costly remediation, Nanninga indicated.
“It’s probably time that we do this, because if we ignore it for any longer, it’s going to be a lot more expensive,” she said.
The total cost of cleaning up this contamination is estimated at $312,000, which again can be funded through the additional grant revenue and admin reserves.
The fourth and most involved project approved by trustees is the complete remediation of the Vimy School site.
The former Vimy School at one point utilized an oil heater and oil tanker, and when the school was demolished in 2009 following its closure as a result of declining enrolment, it was determined that the oil tanker had leaked and contaminated the surrounding soil.
Currently, Pembina Hills leases the site to Westlock County, which in turn allows a local community group to use it as a green area.
“Ideally, we would love to give (away) this site and hand it over for a dollar to either Westlock County or the community group,” she said. “They have a use for it. They can make it something better than what we can.”
However, that’s basically impossible while that contamination remains, and the likelihood of someone else coming in and paying to clean up that site is slim.
The first option presented to trustees, which they ultimately chose, was to do a complete clean-up of the site at an estimated cost of around $600,000 to $700,000.
“It is definitely a more complicated project to do today than it would have been when we initially tore the school down,” said Nanninga.
Other options presented to trustees include doing a site-specific risk assessment and management plan, which would determine the potential hazards of using that site for, say, a community garden or some other project.
That option carried with it a $25,000 price tag for the initial report, along with ongoing monitoring that would cost $20,000 annually — four tests per year at $5,000 a pop — for an indeterminate amount of time.
While less costly in the short-term, Nanninga warned that environmental regulations never get looser over the years and there’s always the possibility that Pembina Hills would eventually run afoul of them.
The third option was to carry out a partial excavation of the most contaminated soil and develop a risk management plan for 25 years. That would cost approximately $227,000 and would offer a slightly higher likelihood of someone taking over the site.
However, Nanninga personally recommended that the division go with the full clean-up, and trustees agreed with her.
"I feel very strongly that we have a responsibility to the community to clean up our mess and leave them with a piece of property that they can use however they see fit,” said trustee Sherry Allen.
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