The M.D. of Taber is issuing several claims under the Southern Alberta Disaster Recovery Program for its citizens, due to the heavy rains earlier this year, and the M.D. is making a claim for itself.
M.D. infrastructure has felt the wrath of Mother Nature with damage estimates anywhere between $500,000 to $700,000, with final numbers likely to be finalized in a couple of weeks.
“We have some significant claims, including the bridge that was lost along with road gravel,” said Derrick Krizsan, municipal administrator for the M.D. of Taber, referring to the bridge on Township Road 14-4, just east of Highway 36 along the Bow River. “We have ongoing pumping costs. We have a number of township and range roads in the M.D. that are continuing to be barricaded because of water over the road.”
The wiped-out bridge near Vauxhall comes with a $330,000 carnage price tag attached to it, according to Krizsan. With closures of numerous campsites at the M.D. Park, many of which will likely stay closed until September, damage was suffered there as well.
The new washroom which had recently been installed, had the high levels of moisture cause the foundation to shift from the erosion with the new excavation.
The claims will not include money lost from campsites being closed during peak camping season.
“The M.D. is not eligible to collect on lost revenue from the park, and that is a significant loss as well. It is between the $30,000 and $50,000 dollar range in revenue,” said Krizsan.
The $200-million dollar provincial recovery program will allow the M.D. to claim expenses related to manpower dealing with the weather woes of the series of intense rainstorms from June 15-21, for both regular and overtime hours and material costs.
“Estimates are, following the storm, there were upwards of 200 miles of additional road added to our graveling program this year. When you figure 200 miles at 250 yards per mile, that’s a significant amount of gravel,” said Krizsan. “There was also the extra grading that was required because of the road conditions.”
Engineers from Emergency Management Alberta will come to evaluate claims made by the M.D. and its residents for costs associated with the previous storms.
M.D. of Taber Reeve Hank Van Beers is taking a wait-and-see-approach to commenting on the effectiveness of the program until after the engineers have made their evaluations.
“The government has reacted quickly to the disaster. But there are still some estimates to come and for now as an M.D. we are stuck in the middle,” said Van Beers.
“It is a program that is responding quite well and I’m quite pleased about that. We are just starting and in some areas money is available already. As far as we are concerned, they have done a good job responding to our concerns, but you don’t really know until the cheque is in the mail.”
In a provincial press release issued last week outlining the program, 24 applications had been received within the M.D. of Taber.