Redland water line options
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wheatland County is continuing its discussions regarding potential improvements to water infrastructure in Redland and was presented with a report by administration at the May 17 regular council meeting.
Brad Bullock, with County administration presented to council some of the details pertaining to the potential project, as well as some of the options the County may take to establish the water line improvements.
“Last council meeting and previous ones, council had directed administration to look into potential options for infrastructure as well as funding for potable water servicing for the community of Redland,” said Bullock, whose presentation to council was intended as information, as the Wheatland Regional Corporation (WRC) presented similar information from their perspective the following day.
Administration proposed the improvements to the Redland Water line to be classified under the Municipal Government Act as a local improvement, which also suggested the implementation of a local improvement tax to aid in funding the project, among other sources of revenue.
A local improvement is a project that council considers to be of greater benefit to a specific area of the municipality than the whole municipality and is to be paid for in part or entirely by a tax.
“On the Wheatland County side, the way these systems would work is we would have the main WRC line. Coming off of that line, we would have a point of transition similar to the distribution systems with communities like Rosebud and Gleichen,” said Bullock. “There would be a valve (installed) and that would be your point of transition, and a meter to (measure) the amount of water coming off of that. After that, that would be the county system distributing within the community.”
The other option that administration presented to council, Bullock said was very similar to the system the WRC would provide, being to not have a community reservoir or pump.
Instead, each house would have their own cistern with a trickle system which would fill up and the individual property could draw on it for their own household.
That option would represent a fairly typical installation by the WRC for rural connections.
On the WRC side, one consideration would be to have each residence within the community that wishes to hook up to the WRC line, would have their own line off of the main line.
Viability would depend on how many residents are interested in having individual lines hooked up to their properties. Additionally, depending on the number of people interested, has the potential to be the most economical option.
County Council accepted the report as information following debate and questioning to become clearer about the details and potential intricacies of the project. No motions have been made to yet begin the project in earnest.