Grassy Lake sidewalk repair incoming

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By Cole Parkinson
Taber Times
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

A request to fix a sidewalk in the hamlet of Grassy Lake has made its way to the Municipal District of Taber council.

Due to dirt and gravel piling up or being pushed against the sidewalk at the community hall, the sidewalk has become lower than the grade of the parking lot.

“Currently, we are hoping to improve the parking lot and sidewalk located on the east side of the community hall. The slope of the parking lot is graded towards the building and the sidewalk is level with the parking lot so large pools of water often form on top of the sidewalk. This section of sidewalk extends from the base of the stairs at the main entrance and towards the gymnasium door stairs. It is most concerning in the winter when the snow melts off of the parking lot and onto the sidewalk, where it puddles and then often freezes, and because of the slope, this puddle becomes quite deep making it difficult, if not impossible, to chip away or control with de-icer,” reads a letter from Sara Torsisu, Grassy Lake Recreation Board treasurer.

Council discussed the request to fix the issue during their regular council meeting held on May 26.

“Administration has looked at this situation and suggests the best possible fix for the problem is to not replace the sidewalk but to reshape the parking lot to allow water to drain away from the sidewalk and from off the building,” reads administration’s report.

Estimated costs of the project are for an excavator for 10 hours for a total of $1,500, a dump truck for 10 hours for a total of $1,000 and 20 tonnes of gravel at $240 for an overall estimated cost of $2,470.

“I talked to Sara (Torsisu) on this. What they’ve got is a situation of water puddling up in front of the stairs, which is not only the stairs to the hall but also to the seniors. They looked into having it built up and it was going to be a $15,000 or $20,000 fee. I tend to agree with it, let’s deal with the drainage. It’s not good having drainage back into the building at any account. I would tend to agree with the recommendation. Let’s get this sloping away from the building. It will save us a lot of issues in the future,” added Coun. Brian Brewin. “What’s happened over the years is gravel has been put in and it keeps rising up and up. Now, I guess, the sidewalks are the lowest part. We’ve got to recognize this was probably put in 40 or 50 years ago from some farmers that just laid some concrete. Over the years it has built up so the sidewalk is now the lowest spot. There is a drain ditch right beside it so I don’t think it would take a whole lot to reshape it properly and get the water moving away from the building rather than towards the building.”

A motion was carried unanimously to move forward with the project when M.D. of Taber staff has time.

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