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The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-04-20, Page 66 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, April 20, 2016 Huron -Kinloss council OKs $1 million drainage project despite landowners' protests, petition Darryl Coote Reporter Huron -Kinloss council is moving forward with a $1 million drain restoration project despite protests from concerned landowners who say it's too expensive and unnecessary. The drain is working fine, said Cory Pollock who has previously spoken before council against the project and owns property that will be affected by this ruling. "We're doing a lot of work for very little gain," he said following last night's council decision. However, Huron -Kinloss Mayor Mitch Twolan said right now time is on the township's side, but that might not always be the case. "Concerns from council tonight were that if we don't go ahead with this project, what will the costs be in a few years? We saw and heard from the drainage contractor tonight that these are the types of things we have to address now or they are going to cause more problems," Twolan said. During the regular council meeting April 11, Dietrich Engineering Ltd. explained the Royal Oak municipal drain located near the north- ern border of the township is suffering from severe erosion and bank degradation. The project to rehabilitate the drain will require excavat- ing 5,505 meters of ditch, installing eight farm lane cul- verts, building a cable con- crete low-level crossing, con- structing 15 riffle structures and repairing banks. The project will amount to $1.05 million with council responsible for $143,304 and with a third of the project to be covered by a provincial gov- ernment grant. This leaves the landowners who directly ben- efit from the drain to shoulder the remaining $548,498. The amount will be divided over the roughly 40 affected landowners based on a com- bination of benefits gained by the drain, outlet liabilities, the number of acres owned and the type of land and its gener- ated runoff, among other factors. The cost is the greatest con- tention point for the landown- ers. A petition dated April 4 and signed by 27 of the affected landowners was pre- sented to council demanding that if council believes repairs are necessary a new cheaper, scaled down proposal should be presented. "The drain is working and the grade is good, the cost of this project is unrealistically excessive and of very little benefit," the petition reads. Council debated paring down the project, but decided any savings would not be worth it. Councillor Jim Hanna had LCICI(NOW MINOR IIOCI(EY BHNQLIET SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016 Doors open at 3:30PM BBQ - 4PM Awards banquet - 5PM sharp Food for BBQ supplied by LAWS & LMHA Donations welcome for BBQ Supper Chocolate Milk donated by Huron County Dairy Producers LMHA Hockey Registration will be available for 2016/17 hockey season. Please note: Last Day for Early Bird is April 30th, New Late Fee $100 LMHA Golf Day at Blackhorse Golf and Country Club June 11, 2016 Shotgun Start at 1PM - SIGN UP NOW - single or teams of 4 $100 per player Hole Sponsors are welcome too Contact Denise Angst at angstpd@hurontel.on.ca or 519 395 0570 asked the representatives of Dietrich Engineering if they were trying to make the pro- ject too "fancy." But after Dietrich Engineer- ing's Greg Nancekivell went over each cost point trying to shave off costs, Hanna decided any reduction would only hurt the project's longev- ity ongevity and use. "Are we trying to make this too fancy? And my sense is we aren't," he said. A large deciding factor in council's decision to sign off on the plan was the guaran- teed provincial grant that will cover $280,192 of the cost. This money allocated for drainage issues could disap- pear at anytime, Twolan argued. "Folks, that could be gone in nextyear's [provincial] budget," the mayor said. Council Carl Sloetjes added, "It's hard enough to get a grant from the provincial govern- ment, but there is this here and it is open and it might not be there all the time Making the issue more time sensitive has been the recent increase in heavy rain and snowstorms that have washed out roads and trails in the township. It is only evidence of more to come, said the mayor. "Climate change is here," Twolan said, and it's only going to exasperate flooding condi- tions, which will tax the drain- age system already in place, worsen erosion and increase the cost to do these repairs later. "I think we're going to see fundamental changes, folks, we haven't seen in years," Twolan said. Hanana added that if council doesn't act now, this project's costs will only go up. "We're taking an awful risk if we don't move forward," he said. The original section of the drain was constructed in 1967 to dealwithfloodingissues and was extended in 1971.Asecond extension was later added to the drain in 1988. The momentum to fix this drain started in 2009 by Huber- tus Von Westerholt who sub- mitted a petition to extend the Royal Oak drain as his property was beyond the drain's termi- nus and the runoff was causing his land to experience signifi- cant erosion and bank instability. Under the Drainage Act the request initiated an investiga- tion, which council saw as an opportune time to generate a report concerning the entire drain. The fact that only one land- owner brought this issue for- ward seemed unfair to some in the audience. "If it's as bad as you as it is why is there is only one land- owner petitioning this?" asked Joel Armstrong from the audience. Another person voiced con- cerns that if once the drain is completed can someone else submit a request for an exten- sion and reignite this lengthy process again. In short, the answer is yes, said Grant Collins, the munici- pality's drainage superintendent. If a person downstream is being negatively affected by runoff from the drain and peti- tions for it to be extended land- owners upstream along the drain might be obliged to become involved in the process. However, due to where the drain will now end, the runoff is not expected to affect any other privately owned property. Conceming council's request to investigate the condition of WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE Learn More www.nwmo.ca nwmo NUCLEAR WASTE SOCIETE DE GESTION MANAGEMENT DES DECHEFS ORGANIZATION NUCLEAIRES Darryl Coote/Reporter Dietrich Engineering's Greg Nancekivell gives a PowerPoint presentation detailing his firm's recommendations to extend the life of the Royal Oak drain in Huron -Kinloss. the entire drain, Dietrich Engi- neering's Nancekivell said his firm expects the improvements will extend the life expectancy by 75 years. Prior to calling the vote on the motion, Twolan told those in the audience he was sympa- thetic to their concerns, but rehabilitating the drainage trench now is the best option for the municipality. It is short term pain for long term gain, he said nearing the end of the three-hour meeting. "Doing the right thing is not always the best thing to do in the eyes of a lot of taxpayers," he said. ':.. [But] I believe this is the right thing to do for the municipality and the farmers." The motion will be brought back for final adoption April 18 with the by-law amend- ment allowing for the project to be constructed in three phases over three years if pre- ferred by the yet to be ten- dered construction company. Lucknow Bowling scores Town and Country Bowling Scores for April 14 PLAYOFFS Games over 200 - NIL, Games over 175 - Anita Elliott -197, 176, Lois Chaput -184, 176, Pat Liv- ingston -177 High Single Ladies: Anita Elliott -197 High Double Ladies: Anita Elliott -373 High Single Men: Ken Chaput-156 High Double Men: Ken Chaput-295 FINAL TEAM STAND- INGS/POINTS Snowdrops -7, Daffodils -6, Pansies -5, Daisies -4, Tulips -3, Hyacinths -2 Tuesday Night Bowling April 5 Over 200 Scores: Ron Elli- ott 221, Charles Green 223, 208 Kevin Finnigan 222 HIGH SINGLE - FEMALE: Anita Elliott 203, MALE: Isaac Smith - 281 HIGH TRIPLE - FEMALE: Anita Elliott - 475 MALE: Kevin Finnigan - 592 TEAM STANDINGS - Team 4 - 3, Team 3-3, Team 1-1 Team 2-1 Town and Country Bowl- ing Scores for March 24 Games over 200 - NIL Games over 175 - Anita Elliott -198, Maureen Collins - 190, Bev Springer -186, Bob Irwin -176 High Single Ladies: Anita Elliott -198 High Double Ladies: Anita Elliott -361 High Single Men: Bob Irwin - 176 High Double Men: Bob Irwin -338 FINAL TEAM STAND- INGS/POINTS Pansies -51, Tulips -46, Snowdrops -37, Hyacinths - 36, Daisies - 34, Daffodils -30 FOR MOVIE INFORMATION... www.rnawielinks.cady.,z01-866-265-3438