Drainage concern

Tracy Barber | Jul 20, 2022

I am responding to the letter from Bob Teal in last week’s paper. In his letter he mentioned that Mr. Myers told him that there is no money for recreation this year but Mr. Teal noticed there is money for a new rink project this year in the budget. I have a similar situation.

At the end of 2020, when the road construction in Sharbot Lake was nearing completion, it became obvious that the water drainage work at the corner of Garrett and Elizabeth Streets was completely ineffective due to improper design. The rain water from Hwy 38 was running down Elizabeth St., bypassing the drainage swale built for the purpose of collecting and directing this water. Consequently, the rainwater continues straight across the street washing out the new sod. Since then, the rainwater makes its way to the culverts on my side of the street through my lawn depositing lots of sand, salt, weed seeds, and other contaminants. After the first incident, I contacted Tysen Myers. I also contacted Senior Environmental Officer, David Arnott, from the Ministry of Environment, about my concern. Mr. Myers replied via email to Senior Officer Arnott that the error would be remedied in the spring of 2021. Mr. Myers informed me that the problem was a design error. At the end of 2021, I contacted Mr. Myers again because nothing had been done. He then told me that it was a warranty issue and that the correction would be done in 2022. In June of this year, I asked at the township office if my situation is in the system. Nothing was found, so I put in a service request. Recently the money left over from the Sharbot Lake road construction grant was reallocated to The Matthew Street Project. I then wrote a letter similar to this to the Township councillors because senior officer Arnott advised me to make sure the councillors were aware as well.

In my opinion this left over money should have been allotted to fix errors in the Sharbot Lake Road Construction Project the grant money was originally for.

The councillors need to be made aware of situations in order to make informed decisions.

Tracy Barber