Bridging the Gap!

For those of you who were wondering about the South Bridge on the walking path, down near the Public Works Yard, it will be reconstructed in the spring.  The other two bridges are now complete and they look great!  They have been raised up so they should be high and dry when that newly deepened ditch fills up this spring. 

We are hoping that the improvements to that drainage canal will help in moving all that run-off water from Rocky View County lands through the village, and out the East side.

I suspect that part of the delay in the reconstruction of the South Pedestrian bridge was a result of the vandalism done to the second bridge.  Senseless vandalism costs us all. 

By the way, I noticed tracks across the pedestrian bridge behind CHS-DynAgra which appear to be made by some kind of ATV, perhaps a quad.  A reminder to all that the bridge was built as a pedestrian bridge.   Motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles should not be using it.

Beiseker History: Floods!

Flooding on Beiseker's Main Street, 1914.
Glenbow Archives

T.L. Beiseker and his group of land speculators from the United States sold the land around what is now the village of Beiseker to eager settlers wanting new farmland.

When it came down to picking a site for the new town, they looked around at the options.  They needed a site that was adjacent to the then-new Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way, and near the proposed Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (now, CN) right-of-way.  It had to be reasonably flat and preferably not saleable as farmland.

They chose here!  The site where the village now sits was a lowland, with small sloughs and wetlands.  It dried up every year, but it was sometimes too late to seed a crop.

Fill was brought in, buildings were constructed and the village grew. 

Unfortunately, the two railways interrupted the natural flow of water through the area, and on heavy run-off years (or after big storms) Beiseker always flooded.  There was many years where Main Street flooded.  In fact, there was a year when over a metre of water flooded Main Street in front of the King George Hotel, where the hardware store is today.

There is an myth of an unfortunate individual who staggered drunk out of the King George Hotel tavern, fell in the water and drowned, right there on Main Street.  I have yet to find any facts to back up this story.

In the 1950s, with the help of provincial funding, a drainage channel was built around Beiseker, just south of town.  That solved the severe flooding problems.  Because most of downtown Beiseker was built on a flat lowland, there are still some small problems with water pooling even today.  Practically every direction out of downtown Beiseker is uphill.  The only good flowing water channel is that one built over 60 years ago.  

Now that system is being burdened by water coming into Beiseker from Rocky View County lands, north of town.  If I had a chance to go back in time and talk to Mr. Beiseker, I'd advise him to build his town on higher ground!  

The Storm Drain Issues

There was a question at coffee time after our Town Hall meeting about storm water (and spring melt water) drainage from the village.  I gave only a short answer at the time, without a lot of details.  I'll attempt to fill in more of those details, here.

The older part of town, between the CN Rail line and the abandoned CP Rail line, is almost completely flat.  Water drainage from this area is very difficult. Over the last 60 years, successive village governments have been gradually adding storm drains and ditches to facilitate storm water and runoff leaving town, as budgets and provincial grants have permitted.  It started with the construction of a drainage ditch around the southern part of the village which empties into a natural watercourse to the east. That ditch was constructed about 60 years ago.

Two storm drain systems were added over the past 20 years. One is located on the south side of Ninth Street, while the other is located under Fifth Street. Both empty into a drainage channel along the west side of the CN tracks, which flows into that original ditch. To create a slope, allowing water to run downhill, has meant burying these drainage pipes deep in the ground.

At the junction of fifth Street and fourth Avenue there is actually a well from which the water must be pumped into the adjacent ditch. The Ninth Street Drainage pipes (there are two in parallel) still depend on gravity!

Slow-moving water along  Second and Third Avenues is causing problems along those roadways. Sidewalks and roadways are deteriorating, and standing water poses an ongoing problem.

The village plans to address this problem by eventually constructing underground drainage channels and above ground ditches to move water towards Ninth Street, or Fifth Street.  But these projects will be expensive, and the village will need assistance from the province to complete them.

In the meantime Beiseker Public Works will continue to keep surface water moving down those avenues as much as possible. 

Issue #2: Water, water, water!

Beiseker is built in a slight hollow which means we have a very shallow slope from one side of town to the other.  During heavy rains or a large melt, water has trouble exiting the village fast enough.  At times we also get swamped with water coming from the north into the village.  I intend to work on long term solutions to this water problem.  I will do everything in my power to make flooded basements in Beiseker a distant memory!

During this past term, Beiseker Village Council enacted legislation that prohibits the dumping of rain or runoff water into the sanitary sewer lines.  This water should be directed onto the surface and allowed to exit the village on the surface.  If placed into the sanitary sewer line it will overwhelm the force main pumps designed to pump only effluent. 

I will continue to work to make sure these two systems are operating correctly, separately and efficiently!