Chipseal roads
The Town of Gibsons is fielding fresh complaints about a project to resurface roads using a technique called chipseal.
More than a dozen people turned up at the Oct. 18 Gibsons council meeting in support of a petition signed by 27 residents of Martin, North Fletcher and Corlett roads. Complaints have also been made by residents of Hillcrest, Tricklebrook, Mountainview and Seacot.
Chipseal is layers of tar, or bitumen, combined with fine gravel, and the residents say the rough surface and loose gravel are causing safety concerns. The recent heavy rains brought more complaints about potholes creating the appearance of a dirt road. Some residents have claimed using chipseal will drive property values down.
Director of engineering Dave Newman said this week that the rain has caused problems with the project. “Due to the record-setting wet weather we had during the month of October, a layer of gravel and compacted fine materials has been packed over the chipsealed surface by vehicle traffic. This layer was not able to be removed by the sweeping that was completed by the Town at the end of October,” said Newman.
“The result is that the roads will continue to have the appearance of a gravel road until we get enough of a stretch of dry weather to break up the hard-packed layer on the road. We cannot scrape the layer off as there is a concern that it will damage the new surface underneath. The scraping that would be necessary to remove this layer would be more aggressive than what normally occurs with snow plowing.”
At the Oct. 18 meeting where the petition was presented, Mayor Wayne Rowe said the Town did its best to let residents know what was planned.
“There were several discussions at committee and council meetings … we advertised what we were going to do,” Rowe said at the meeting. “We had plaques here in the Town Hall entrance for several days, there was a door to door notice sent out. Even after all of that, only three households showed up at the open house that we held to explain what we were going to do.”
A bylaw authorizing the borrowing of $244,000 to cover the cost of the project was adopted at the Nov. 1 council meeting.
GDVFD update
The Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department (GDVFD) is still hoping to have a new ladder truck early next year.
During his third-quarter report for council Nov. 1, Chief Rob Michael said they’ve finished drafting the specs and now it’s up to the SCRD to put out a formal tender.
The department has budgeted $800,000 ($500,000 from reserves with the rest to be covered through a loan), but with most fire truck manufacturers based in the U.S., the exchange rate will be a factor in how far that budget will go.
“Until I can get some feedback from vendors, I’m not sure what the actual budget will be like,” Michael said.
The GDVFD has 39 active volunteer members, and a batch of recruits has now been trained enough to respond to emergency incidents. “We’re looking at doing a recruitment drive at the end of this quarter to make sure we don’t fall behind,” Michael told councillors.
In his written report Michael noted that “within the past year there has been a near complete turnover of the staff at the GDVFD. We have lost a vast amount of experience during this transition and we wish to develop our staff to help to ease this shortcoming. Several of the staff positions in our department are considered specialties in the fire service.”
Michael said burning complaints are still making up a large portion of their calls. There were 47 in the first three quarters of 2016, compared to 26 in all of 2015.
“It seems that we’re missing the mark on the education somehow, so I’m sending formal letters [to violators], establishing exactly what those rules and regulations are to help educate them,” Michael said. “What I have noticed is that I’m not going to the same residence multiple times.”
After an incident over the summer when a land clearing burn in the SCRD’s Area E led to several complaints, Coun. Silas White was curious to know the breakdown between complaints coming from the regional district zone the fire department covers and within town boundaries.
Michael said those numbers aren’t available.
