Westlock County council has proven itself to be focused only on the status quo with two head-scratching decisions made April 25.
First, councillors rescinded a nearly four-year old motion to demolish and remediate a site in Vimy contaminated with gasoline ingredients, even though there is provincial money set aside for it. Granted, Westlock County didn’t create the mess in question, but as stewards they should be compelled to deal with it.
Councillors should act in the best interest of their constituents, not ignore potential human and environmental risks. The attitude that it’s not their problem and let the next council deal with it is shortsighted at best and borderline negligent. It’s been nearly two decades since the soil was lasted tested, so that’s hoping the contamination has not leached into the soil and groundwater.
But who cares, right? It’s not our problem as the election is only six months away.
Reeve Don Savage suggested leaving the building and leasing it out.
“Let Vimy use it for some purpose and forget about it somehow,” he said.
For one, what good is an old building on a piece of contaminated land?
The county could try to sell the lot for what little the land is worth because who would want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for land and then pay double that to clean it up.
If $91,000 of $170,000 in grant money has already been spent and that is not enough, how much will it actually cost to remediate the land? The owner will likely demand the county pitch in, so ratepayers will end up paying in the end.
As for the second shortsighted decision, council took a feasibility report charging ATV users at the Long Island Lake quad park as “information.”
In other words, “forget about it.”
In this case, trails are being destroyed by motorized vehicles and vandalism, yet council’s thought is, “If no one else is charging quadders, why should we?”
This is an opportunity for this county to be ahead of the pack, especially if Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) is considering additional licensing fees for ATVers.
Unfortunately, both are now lost opportunities.
