Transfer station demolition pit nears provincial approval in Rosetown

By Ian MacKay

Local leaders expect to soon receive provincial approval to begin using the new demolition pit at the transfer station.

The town must put up signs first, Amanda Bors, the acting chief administrator, said during the April 6 council meeting.

An instruction to educate people hauling pieces of demolished buildings represents part of the permit the Environment Department would issue, public works superintendent Bob Bors indicated.

There will have to be “a lot of communication about what we can put in that pit,” Mayor Trevor Hay said.

Bob Bors agreed, adding that the town must also remind residents about “unsecured loads travelling to” the transfer station.

Provincial staff “want to see a whole education” document that the town plans to use, Bors said.

Besides using tarps and straps, people will be told to stop and pick up anything that falls off or gets blown off their loads, Amanda Bors said.

The town has not stressed that recently, Hay noted, recalling signs saying “Don’t Be a Litterbug” on Marshall Avenue years ago and wondering where they went.

Staff have prepared the pit for use, building “a little pad out into the pit,” Bob Bors said. “That’s where the public will dump (their loads) on” before staff bulldoze it down into the pit, he said. Without the deck where trash sits, someone would have to be there at all times to push debris into the pit, he explained.

“We’ve got to hash out a few more little things and we should be good to go,” he said.

Staff had also had to alternate between clearing snow from streets and attending to drainage problems recently as more snow arrived and soon melted, Bors reported.

A problem at Ninth Avenue and Sixth Street East, where rainwater and runoff drain “extremely slowly,” partly involves “undersized pipes,” he said.

“All those pipes in that area are undersized,” he said. Staff are trying to decide how to install larger pipes and have identified a pipe at least partly blocked “farther down Ninth Avenue,” he indicated.

“We replaced all four leads to that intersection last year and now we’re dealing with sections of the main pipe,” Bors said. “We’ve got one area where we have to dig up and do a spot repair, and then decide how we move down the street, replacing and upsizing piping.”

Installing liner, as Mayor Hay suggested, “basically turns (a sewer line) into a water slide instead of a rough concrete pipe, which is what it is right now,” Bors said.

Pipes currently in that area, if lined, might still result in puddles around that intersection, he added.