The bills are starting to add up for the R.M. of Stanley as crews begin repairing roads damaged by the hard winter and wet spring. That from Deputy Reeve Ike Friesen who says the Province's investment of an additional $15 million, one-time grant for municipalities to support road repairs, is welcome news. The municipality will receive $106,051.67 through the program.
"We're keeping track of all the repairs that we're doing. Some are more expensive than others," said Friesen.
He noted, that repairs range from $5,000 upwards to $20,000, and says there is an expectation some could ring in around $100,000. In total, Friesen says there are 216 sites in the R.M. of Stanley that have been inspected and documented.
"I'm glad the Province is looking at that and seeing there's a lot of road repair needed, and they're helping us out with it," he added.
On top of full washouts, Friesen says a lot of the roads have washboards and are also seeing frost boils starting to pop up now that the frost is coming out of the ground.
"For the most part, they're not too bad to drive on right now," he added. "We did hire some other graders to help us out for one week to get them all back into decent condition, but we are behind in retrieving gravel and that type of work this spring because we were still pushing snow at the time when we normally would have been doing that."
According to Friesen, three areas remain closed to traffic in the municipality.
"Hopefully people are patient with us," he noted. "They are working hard, it's not like we're not putting the time in. Unfortunately, the conditions are what they are."