Carrot Creek drainage plan
St. Albert councillors hope to team up with their Sturgeon County counterparts to create a drainage plan for Carrot Creek.St. Albert council voted Nov. 19 to spend $1 million from the city's offsite levy fund to start design and land purchase work for Project 5 – a new pipe meant to drain stormwater from Erin Ridge North and the lands north of it. Council also agreed to spend $200,000 to create a regional master drainage plan for Carrot Creek in collaboration with Sturgeon County, Morinville and the province.
Stormwater from Erin Ridge North currently flows through Erin Ridge and Oakmont to the Sturgeon, city growth engineering manager Kate Polkovsky told council. That route is now maxed out, so administration wants to shunt this flow down a new pipe that would run to the Sturgeon from roughly the end of Coal Mine Road.
While she presented a tentative route for the line to council, Polkovsky described it as more of a “giant highlighter mark on a page” than a final alignment. The finished line would cost $5 to $10 million; this initial $1 million was to figure out the line’s precise route and design and what land the city needed to buy to build it.
Carrot Creek flows south toward St. Albert and drains into Big Lake. Local governments have long discussed the need to create a drainage map for it, and now that the city plans to develop the lands near it, it makes sense for St. Albert to take the lead on the map, Polkovsky said.
Councillors heard the drainage plan would be a highly technical document that would require provincial approval. The cost to do it could be lowered through partnerships or grants. When finished, it would help prevent flooding as well as help plan servicing in this region.
Council heard the Project 5 pipe would likely be built by 2021, with the drainage plan finished by 2020.
Three meetings next week
Next week, St. Albert city councillors are slated to meet three times.At Monday's regular council meeting, some of the topics expected to come forward include a potential increase to city councillors' salaries to compensate for the loss of a one-third tax exemption; a policy for the city's residential parking program, which has been a pilot project; budget amendments; and a council motion regarding the public art committee.
On Tuesday, council members will resume their annual budget meetings, which began earlier this month. This time, council members will debate motions they put forward over the last few weeks. They have Tuesday and Thursday slated to debate motions and council will vote on the final draft of the budget on Dec. 17.
Transit award
St. Albert's electric bus project has earned the city a national award.The city owns seven long-range, battery-powered electric buses, the first of which was unveiled in early 2017. The buses currently run on both local and commuter routes, and are Canada's first municipally owned long-range electric buses.
On Nov. 21, Coun. Wes Brodhead accepted an award from the Canadian Urban Transit Association in the category of environmental sustainability. The award recognizes transit systems that enhance or protect the environment while meeting industry demands, according to a Nov. 22 news release from the city.
