Buckets have become more of a staple than hand sanitizer at the Ponoka County office with all of the recent rains.
That’s why council at its June 9 meeting heard about administration’s plan to fix the roof and, at the same time, possibly save some more money through electrical efficiency upgrades.
County director of operations Peter Hall told council that the current roof has several leaks, spawning the need for many pails to be placed strategically throughout the office and a plan for some significant repairs.
“All the seams and thresholds around the air handling units are coming apart and this isn’t small,” Hall said.
“The best option according to one expert, is to install styrofoam in a special configuration that would result in a vast improvement in the insulation factor. From there, fibre board and a two-ply torch-on membrane on top, so basically it would be a whole new roof structure.”
Reeve Paul McLauchlin asked if a pitched roof had been looked at and Hall stated the pitch on the repair would be fine, but the fix isn’t going to be cheap.
“We have quotes coming, but whether it is this year or next, this roof is going to be fixed as we can’t patch over this,” Hall said.
In addition, in answering a question about the monthly electrical bill — about $16,000 — for all of the county facilities, Hall explained he has spoken with staff about what can be done to save some money.
“I’ve spoken about all of the things we can do to modernize our facilities and we need to start taking steps to lower our power bills,” he said.
“Obviously, one step is replacing our current lights with LEDs and that will save the county money over time.”
Once the quotes come in and administration has a better handle on the entire project, that information and options will be back before council for a decision.
Accounts
Council received its monthly update of payments made and were a bit shocked at one in particular — a cheque for more than $211,000 to Keyera.
CAO Charlie Cutforth said the county was responsible for the costs of lowering a pipeline as well as an integrity inspection completed as part of the reconstruction of Range Road 11.
“It was an old line and we had sent them our typical crossing agreement, but only got a verbal agreement,” he said.
“This was at a time when all pipelines were under fire and because they found some portion of the line needed to be replaced as well, and since it wasn’t an engineered project, the county was on the hook.”
Water issues
After two earlier discussions with council and a site visit by Ponoka County staff, it seems there is a possible resolution to some drainage concerns that had been raised by a resident.
Back on April 28 and again on May 26, Maureen Orr brought forward the issue of water run-off from some properties on a nearby subdivision that were flooding a field behind her home that she used to pasture a couple of horses.
Orr’s hope was that the county would come up with a solution, but was frustrated with the county’s answers following an engineering report that showed that drainage would eventually flow onto her property as it is the lowest point in the area.
However, Cutforth along with Hall and a public works employee paid a visit to look at the area with Orr and may have found a solution.
“I think we have come to an amicable solution, but it is going to take a bit of work on the county’s part,” Cutforth told council.
“It will mean cleaning the swale to accommodate the water that is coming out of the subdivision. I don’t know if it will be entirely resolved, but I think we have done everything that we can and done our due diligence.”
Hall added that the county also spoke to some other residents nearby and came away with a couple more items that could be addressed.
“Basically, it’s about trying to add more volume to the downstream load by maintaining the pitch and speed with which the water leaves the property,” Hall said.
“At the end of the day there are some upstream issues, so there is some ability to keep some of that drainage in the county ditch and using things to speed the water up.”
However, Hall noted the landscaping that Orr had complained about wasn’t contributing, but was actually helping with the drainage.
“She is at the bottom of the hill and the county will clean out an area for a stream down to the low point, gets the water down to the lake and assists her in that way,” he said.
“Further to that, we had discussions with her around maintaining the swale and ensuring it is cleaned out on a regular basis.”