M.D. council reviews previous Enchant area request

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

The Municipal District of Taber staff has looked into previous requests from a past delegation from the Enchant area.

Council were given a brief rundown of the past delegation where the Stamp family requested to purchase some M.D. land to construct a road for entrance and exit and to lower a culvert near their property.

“The Stamp’s are requesting a number of items including improvements to drainage, construction of an approach through M.D. owned property to the north, a former CPR rail bed as well as a number of other matters which Craig (Pittman, public works superintendent) and Jack (Dunsmore, director of planning and infrastructure) have been looking into over the last several weeks,” said M.D. CAO Derrick Krizsan at the M.D.’s regular council meeting on July 17.

With the culvert request, staff did a survey of existing culverts in an M.D. ditch to check elevations of existing culverts.

From the studies, public works prepared elevation maps to determine what can be done to assist with drainage in the area.

“We did have our survey crew go out there and do a very detailed survey of this drainage ditch as well as the infrastructure so all of the culverts and pipes. One thing to notice, and it directly relates to the concerns they have with some overland flooding, is the ditch itself is nearly perfectly flat through the area. There is next to no positive drainage through out there. We’re looking at a six-inch drop throughout the entire property,” explained Pittman.

Even before the study started, staff knew the region was a low spot.

“Historically it is a natural low area,” said Pittman. “Usually what we find where a ditch has been built on a flat grate, it’s because they are holding a tight grate to get it from point A to point B, which is the case.”

After completing the study, staff provided council with detailed maps which showed drainage with elevation.

With the study done, staff found that the culvert in question was working properly.

“Their request was to remove or lower the culvert there,” continued Pittman. “With that culvert, you can see the invert elevations do have a slight positive drainage to it, therefore the culvert is performing adequately through that area.”

While that particular culvert was still in good working condition, further down they found a culvert that had deteriorated after this year’s flooding.

“As we continued to investigate and go further downstream within this drainage system, we did come across a culvert (that wasn’t functioning correctly). That would be where our sanitary/sewer mainline would run and it’s allowing the drainage to run through, with that cover for frost protection. That culvert did receive some damage, I would assume from our spring floods, and it’s flowing but not properly. We do have that scheduled, to replace that culvert in the next few weeks,” added Pittman.

Staff recommended replacing the one culvert instead of lowering it as was suggested.

“This is a drainage ditch that the M.D. owns as well. It’s one we did a swap with BRID,” stated Dunsmore.

Council unanimously voted to follow the staff recommendation and replace the culvert.

In terms of the land purchase, staff also did some digging into the request and found the property owners were proceeding ahead before council made a decision.

With the matter being brought back to council during the meeting on July 17, they discovered work had already started on the planned road.

“We got some information yesterday (July 16) that construction on that road had commenced on that road,” stated Krizsan.

Staff was dispatched to the property to speak with the residents and informed them that no decision had been made by council yet but the matter would be back for discussion at the July 17 meeting.

In regard to the purchase of the piece of land, staff was hesitant to make it available to purchase.

“Their initial request was to purchase that piece of the railway bed and I would highly recommend you don’t do that. We have a drain in there that drains the industrial lots we are developing,” explained Dunsmore.

One way to allow for a road to be constructed in the area was a road-use agreement between the M.D. and property owners, which Dunsmore recommended would be the best way to proceed.

“The road-use agreement would basically say they have the right to use it at their cost of maintenance. It wouldn’t be a hard thing to do,” he said.

Council voted unanimously to approve a road-use agreement.

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