Lyalta Road paving canceled
Posted 2 months ago
Kirsten Mundy
Standard Editor
"Muirfield Land Corporation is not able at this time to fulfill the commitment to upgrade the Lyalta Road to Highway 9 to unrestricted pavement standards for the year 2010," said Deputy Reeve Shirley Reinhardt at the regular council meeting Nov. 3. "Ongoing discussions with Muirfield Land Corporation will continue with council."
Reinhardt explained to council that the road is presently set to be paved this coming construction season. The agreement was that Muirfield would contribute 75 per cent of the Wheatland County road, and 100 per cent of the cost to finish the road up to Highway 9.
The agreement was a little unclear to council though, as there was nothing specifying when that road must be paved.
"It's going to be an extreme difficulty for the people to accept this isn't going to happen," said Reinhardt.
Many area landowners have been expecting the road to be completed very soon, and due to this change there is no definite date for when it will be paved.
"Trust me, I'm not giving up on this road," said Reinhardt.
In exchange for the Lyalta Road on the paving program, council was presented with options for the road to Global Training, Acreage Road, as well as the road that will bear a majority of the traffic created by a gas storage facility close to Carseland.
Councillor Ken Sauve said that with the Carseland facility, he would like to see the road upgraded this year regardless of what is or isn't canclled.
"We don't have to trade or switch," said Councillor Glenn Koester. "We can just play with the budget."
No final decisions were made by council at the meeting, but it was clear that the Lyalta Road would not be seeing any construction crews this coming spring.
--- Sewage troubles ---
After years of working towards finding a way to properly dispose of Carseland's sewage troubles, there is yet another hurdle for Wheatland County to jump before things can be finalized.
The plan presently is to use the effluent to irrigate some lands close to Carseland. These lands have been tested, and seem to be an ideal fit for the project.
County Manager of Infrasctrure and Transportation, Dave Churchill, said when looking at things they noticed there is a 30 day waiting period between irrigation and removing the crop.
This conflicts with the small window they are already able to irrigate. The policy is part of Alberta Environment's efforts to keep the food used for human consumption safe.
Because the proposed crop on the lands used for irrigation would be for feed, not human consumption, Churchill is hoping Alberta Environment will relax their policy.
"If they can reduce it to seven to 10 days we can work it out," said Churchill, who has a meeting set with Alberta Environment to work this out.
--- Irricana rail line purchase ---
Approximately $75,200 will be spent or forgiven by Wheatland County in the process of having the Irricana rail line transferred back to landowners.
The $40,000 being spent are to survey the lands, having the station grounds removed off the main line. The amount of $35,200 will be forgiven by the county, to have the lands subdivided and redesignated, and re-couped when the lands are sold.
"Once council has acquired this land it will transfer back to the landowners if they're willing to pay," said Reeve Armstrong, who explained the parts of the line in other municipalities will be sold to those municipalities.
--- Grain bag recycling ---
After looking into where grain bags are sent to be recycled, it was discovered by Wheatland County that they never really leave the area.
A local colony is responsible for some of the recycling, and is willing to take the bags directly from people each Wednesday of the month. The Agricultural Service Board is looking into how they will roll out the program, and more information will be available from the county office.
