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.
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