Cypress County repairs ruts, enters replacement program

Posted on November 16, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Anna Smith
Commentator/Courier

The October 31 Cypress County Council meeting was certainly not lacking in events or colour, as council sat dressed as various spirits, ghouls and clever pothole puns for their usual business.

Administration was directed to enter a 2 Year Cycle Replacement Program with Palliser Sales for the Fendt tractor unit. This unit is noted to be the “silver bullet” of snow removal within the county, but does not currently have as many hours of use on it as one might expect.

The agreement would have the cost of the unit be instead paid at a rate by hours used, which was calculated by administration to be significantly lower than the current rate on payments on the unit, and would furthermore also result in the County continually having a unit that is under warranty.

St. Mary River Irrigation District submitted a request to allow for a variance to reduce cover to 2 meters and allow open-cut crossings, including one 95 degree angle crossing. This motion was passed.

While it’s not feasible to develop every passage through the farm and ranchland that weaves across Cypress County, twelve of these roads will be seeing some needed maintenance.

Nine of the requests that came in met policy, and as such, the initial recommended motion was to approve for the minor repairs on the nine roads, which largely consisted of gravelling ruts or small spots, and minor grading work, with the exception of one culvert in need of care.

Three requests came in that did not meet policy, due to the section being touched by a developed road, but after discussion, it was determined that the ratepayers and county may benefit from these roads being repaired as well, and that it would not put the County over budget to include these requests.

“I still maintain that if we can fix up our roads and make it better and divert some traffic, or just make it better for the traffic that’s going in and out, if funding is there, that we should do it,” said Deputy Reeve Richard Oster.

The Draft 2023 Budget presentation was handed out, to return at the November 21 meeting.