Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The Town of Kindersley wants to improve its roads in the industrial area, and officials are discussing options to direct funding towards the road improvements.
Town officials discussed the establishment of a new Industrial Road Reserve on Feb. 12 at a regular meeting of council. No decisions were made at the meeting, but council discussed an option to establish a new levy for property owners in the industrial area.
The town continues to make efforts to improve the industrial area with respect to the roads, dust control and drainage in recent years. Audrey Hebert, the town’s director of corporate services, reminded council of a discussion members had regarding a reserve for industrial area road improvements.
“This was a directive through your budget meeting,” Hebert said, referring to a meeting held on Jan. 31 to discuss the town’s budget expenditures for 2018. “You had a discussion about implementing an industrial road reserve.”
She noted that the discussion included talk of the money for the Industrial Road Reserve coming from the base tax collected for road improvements in town. The director was referring to the annual $300 levy paid by all property owners for road improvements in the municipality.
Hebert said she provided council with information such as there are approximately 146 properties in the town’s industrial area and at $300 per property, the town collects about $43,800 from the industrial properties for road improvements. The total of $43,800 represents 7.4 per cent of an annual levy collected for road improvements, she said.
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The director said council members would have to pass a resolution to establish an Industrial Road Reserve and to ensure that any money not used for improvements in a budget year is put into the reserve for future improvements.
Councillor Gary Becker said council members have agreed the industrial area needs some attention. Councillors Becker, Dean Galbraith and Randy Irvine sit on a council committee with a focus on the town’s industrial area, so the group has been working to understand the needs of the area.
Becker said the $300 levy was a good idea from a previous council because it has helped to get roads paved, but council agreed the industrial area is not getting its fair share of the levy and the town could direct more money to industrial area improvements.
He noted that the idea was to take the share of the levy invested by industrial area property owners to dedicate to road improvements. Becker said it will be a slow process to save up money for improvements, but it’s a start.
Bernie Morton, the town’s chief administrative officer (CAO), said he wanted to point out to council that the $300 levy is assigned to paving roads in town. He noted that paving is an expensive venture, but it is good to keep up on paving projects to avoid ending up with crumbling road infrastructure by falling behind.
For the most part, he said vehicle traffic in the industrial area is heavy haul traffic and the type of traffic has a large impact on the roads. He suggested that council should take a different approach to building up funds to complete industrial road improvements.
Morton said rather than siphoning funds from the town’s existing paving program, he suggested council could establish a new levy for industrial area properties to collect funds for the industrial road improvements.
He noted that roads in the industrial area are built to a different standard than roads in residential areas, and he believes a plan needs to be established. The CAO said the property owners in the industrial area could know their levy dollars are being spent based on the plan.
Council heard that it would take 10 years to complete the improvements if only $43,800 was invested on an annual basis. Morton said council has received information about the previous work the town has done with respect to industrial road work.
He spoke of a previous working group that fizzled out because the group wanted the industrial roads to be paved, but the cost for paving would be far too high. The CAO recognized that work has been done, so council has something to work with and he believes it is time to re-establish the dialogue with industrial area property owners.
Morton told council that drivers are driving too quickly, turning to tightly and eroding the shoulders of roads in the industrial area. He added that the town is aware of what property owners want for road improvements, but paving is too costly.
Mayor Rod Perkins said he agrees with the administration that it would take too long to build up the necessary funds by accumulating only $43,800 per year. He said if the businesses in the industrial area are willing to talk, the town could look at a levy and consider what the businesses want done.
Galbraith said he is “not opposed to the levy” for improvements, but businesses in the industrial area already pay taxes and the $300 levy. He said a grader comes out to work on roads once in a while, but that is all the businesses get for road improvements.
The councillor said the industrial property owners are not looking to have paving done, but they want the dust and mud to be controlled. Morton said he wanted to clarify that the town invests money each year into dust control measures and that money is dedicated to the industrial area.
Ervine pointed out that the town did a test strip of a new dust control application costing about $35,000 back in 2017, but it is unknown if the experiment will work. Council members are going to consider options before making a decision.
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