The matter of some railway crossing rehabilitation work on a 54 Ave. railway crossing due to be done later in 2022 was back before Bashaw council on Jan. 17.
In the meeting council was informed that the estimate the town previously received from Canadian National Railway (CN) was incorrect in charging the town for 100 per cent of the proposed work.
The error came from the CN senior officer who supplied the estimate calculating the work to include an upgraded crossing instead of just wooden plank replacement, a much lower cost which would be cost shared with the municipality.
Instead of the initial $60,000 proposed at the December meeting, the new estimate for the town’s portion of the expenses would be just under $20,000.
The difference between the upgraded crossing and the basic repairs, aside from cost, come down to duration of repair.
According to the information presented, the upgraded crossing made of concrete instead of wood, which Bashaw would be 100 per cent liable for, would last from eight-to-12 years, while the wooden beam crossing is only rated to last two-to-three years.
As council still had questions about what and how much of the repairs they should be covering, and had previously sent letters to CN and to the region’s Member of Parliament, the decision was made to table any decision on the topic to give all parties further opportunity to respond.
Bashaw Fire Department
Council dealt with two matters involving the Bashaw Fire Department during their Jan. 17 meeting.
First, at the request of Fire Chief Dustin Hemingson, the Alberta Emergency Alert Designate has changed from himself to firefighter Dennis Jones.
According to chief administrative officer Theresa Fuller, Hemingson believes that in an emergency response situation his responsibilities would be focused with the response instead of providing notification to the province.
The second matter dealt with by council during the meeting was financial.
An account used to collect donations for the fire department had accrued over $8,000 in funds.
The town has a policy in place that once the account “surpasses $5,000” the funds pass to the town to be put into fire department reserves.
In total, $8,450 was transferred into reserves.