LED Lights & Seventh Street

Street Lights;  I was very pleased to see that our new LED street lights are being installed!  These new lights are far less expensive to operate and their light is less glaring thus cutting down on the light pollution.

I'm hoping that they'll be installed throughout the village soon!

Seventh Street;  I'm sure you've noticed that we began work on Seventh Street.  We're trying something different, there.  We are removing the top layer of surface and replacing it with chipped asphalt, then sealing it with a special material.

It's not as good as pavement but it is considerably cheaper!  By my calculations, far less than a quarter the cost fresh asphalt.

You will recall that when we planned to pave Seventh and Eighth Streets some years ago, the folks along Seventh took up a petition to stop that work along their street,  Provincial municipal acts dictate that council must agree to their wishes.  Seventh Street was dropped from the project.  That project included a Local Improvement Tax (Frontage Tax).

The residents along Eighth are partially paying for their pavement through that frontage tax.

Council decided that since this Seventh Street project is significantly cheaper and it's an experimental procedure, we would not reinstate the Local Improvement portion of that project.

Road Work is Expensive!

During and after the Town Hall meeting last Monday evening, the condition of Beiseker's streets has been mentioned several times.

We have a few critical streets here in the Village which need some serious work.  Here's the ones I can think of, in my personal order of priority -

• The mud bog at the corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street.
• The Beacon Heights Road from Beaver Place to the Public Works Yard.
• First Avenue from the Public Works Yard to the CN tracks.
• Fouth Avenue from Friendship Park to Seventh Street.
• Seventh Street from Fourth Avenue to First Avenue.
• Sixth Street from Third Avenue to Fourth Avenue.
• There are also some lane-ways which need work.

But, a huge amount of road work could mean increased property taxes.  I for one am opposed to such a property tax increase.

There are some provincial grants available.  The old grant for improving streets has a new name, but it's still offered.  There are also the Municipal Sustainability Grants available, although significantly reduced by the province.  We on council would like to continue our Main Street upgrade project with a big chunk of that money, but maybe we should be looking at that decision again.

There is also the option of naming a portion of a project a local improvement and assigning a frontage tax on those properties directly affected by street improvements.

What do you think? Let me know here; it's free.  I would like your input.

Keeping Beiseker Moving

In my opinion, Beiseker has more unfinished streets than any other municipality in our area.  By unfinished, I mean unpaved.  We've had so many other issues to deal with, lately, that our streets have taken a backseat. I believe the time is come to start improving our streets in this village.

There are three areas of concern that I can see;

1. Seventh Street remains unpaved, many years after the petition was presented to stop that project.
2. Part of every Avenue (except First Avenue and Fifth Avenue) are unpaved.
3. Beacon Heights Road south from the entrance to Beacon Heights to the junction with First Avenue is full of potholes, washboard, and generates a huge amount of dust every summer despite the very best effort of our Public Works department.

If re-elected, I will encourage Council to revisit those three projects. I will press Council to ask our engineers to gather us some up-to-date figures on the cost of paving each of these streets.

With those figures in hand, we will be able to create a priority list for the improvements.

Our sidewalk rehabilitation program is almost complete, with very few sections left to replace.  I would like to see a portion of our streets improvement program (which is funded by the provincial government) set aside for paving.

I will also propose council meet with the residents along Seventh Street to discuss their street, and the cost of that project.  Nothing should be done to improve that street until the majority of folks who live there agree.

Seventh Street

Thank you (who ever you are) for your comments regarding 7th Street paving. Some properties would experience a greater increase than others according to the number of feet actually fronting on the street.  In other words the longer the sidewalk across the front of your property, the more you pay! 

We will probably be asking the residents along that street again whether or not they would like their street paved.  And again it will be their democratic right to turn us down by petition.  We (Council) would like to have all the streets in Beiseker paved.  Paved streets are easier to maintain, cut down on the dust, and they raise the resale values of the homes there.  We would like to have the provincial streets grant program pay for them but that could take decades!  That's why a local improvement is considered.

2012 Priorities: Paving

Our first council meeting of 2012 will be held on Monday, January 9 at the Village Office.  I'm sure we'll start talking about priorities for the 2012 budget which for us is set in May of each year.  Besides the issues I mentioned in my New Years message a few days ago, there are a number of other projects we need to consider.  One of my favourites is pavement.

 There are a number of streets in the Village which need paving!  They are;  the avenues starting with Second Avenue going south at the Mountain View Credit Union, then Third Avenue going south from the Community Links building, and Fourth Avenue going south from the entrance to Friendship Park.  Beacon Heights Road going south from Beacon Heights also needs paving. 

The residents along Seventh Street turned down pavement a few years ago, but I think we need to ask them again!

All of these can't be paved over one year, probably not even over five years, but I believe we need to start the process of engineering, base preparation and applying for grants.

Let me know what you think.