While the Tawatinaw Valley ski hill is running this season thanks in part to considerable effort by Westlock County’s council and administration — not to mention the work of the many volunteers who keep the facility running — the news about the facility this week has been troubling, to say the least.
Most startling is that the planned remediation of the ski hill may once again be delayed and the budget impact is anything but clear.
The county had put out a tender for remediation work including digging a ditch and installing dry pumps, among some other components, but we learned at the Jan. 13 council meeting that plan might not work — the flooding in the area comes not just from the groundwater and runoff, it backs up from the creek itself.
Obviously, pumping water back into the creek then is an unworkable plan, and discussions are apparently now taking place about how to physically lift the building to keep the water out. One doesn’t have to be an expert in construction to predict this could be a costly endeavour.
So, we’re apparently back to the drawing board, with CAO Peter Kelly telling council they’re now in the process of trying to get flood plain information which “wasn’t available” before this. There are no estimates on what this could cost.
What’s perplexing about this is that the county hired an outside engineer last fall to provide a report on the best way to get the building open. Presumably the plan to install a ditch and pumps was a result of the recommendations in that report, but it has not yet been made public.
We were told this week the report is being “updated,” and will be released once council has reviewed it — but why that report wouldn’t take into account possible overland flooding in the first place is unclear.
Even more perplexing is why a 2013 report expressing serious concerns about whether a building could be built economically on that site was seemingly ignored or pushed aside by the council of the day.
But given this council and administration’s apparent reluctance to answer straightforward questions about the status of the project, it may unfortunately be some time before the full picture becomes clear.
