PHOTO: David Gray, SV West Baptiste Councilor Myn Hursin, SV West Baptiste CAO Vivian Driver, Athabasca County Director of Corporate Services Brian Pysyk, SV West Baptiste Deputy Mayor Ed Tomaszyk, Deputy Mayor Athabasca County Warren Griffin, Athabasca County Councilor for Division 8 Larry Armfelt.
Two years in the making, representatives from the Summer Village of West Baptiste and Athabasca County joined together on Thursday, September 25th, to officially open a section of the County grid system that has recently been hard surfaced.
The upgraded road is the result of an agreement between the two municipalities that was struck after both parties sat down to discuss how they could work together to cost share and make the project a reality. The section of road connects the main entrance from Highway 2 with the Summer Village of West Baptiste.
Today the road not only provides a safe, clean road surface for both Summer Village and County residents to drive on, but it will also result in cost savings in the long term for the County. Prior to the improvement dust control and road grading was part of the annual maintenance routine. It is estimated that hard surfacing the road means those two costs are reclaimed each year resulting in an overall investment pay-off in under 20 years.
“Working together brings the costs down for everyone, provides a better road surface for those using it while improving the County grid system,” says Larry Armfelt, Councilor for Division 8. “Discussions took place with the administrator, mayor and councillors of West Baptiste as to how we could make it work, a proposal was presented to Athabasca County Council for consideration and the outcome is very positive.”
Without the Summer Village’s contribution of $166,000 the $248,000 project would not have been possible.
The contract for the road improvement tender was awarded to David Gray Enterprises Inc. The road received a new 6” gravel base topped off with a graded and compacted cold mix aggregate.
