Over the next few weeks, the Town of Viking will be providing our community with information regarding topics we receive comments on frequently. Those topics are:
- Rough streets in town
- Paving, sidewalks and curbs
- Roads, trees, snow, equipment and everything else in between
- How do we pay for everything?
In these articles we will walk you through these topics and would like to remind you of the roles and responsibilities of Council and Administration.
Council provides direction on policies and programs through resolutions and bylaws. Their responsibility is the what. Town Council does a number of things for our community, the most important of which is to represent the interests of the residents that they serve. With these interests in mind as well as that of the betterment of the community, Council sets the vision for the Town in it’s Strategic Plan. They are the high-level decision makers that steer our community into the future.
Administration and the CAO provide advice and ensure the decisions and directions of Council are implemented. Their responsibility is the how. Directed by the CAO, Administration carries out the day-to-day operations and decisions and implements policies and programs approved by Council. These day-to-day operations include the services delivered by Public Works, the Carena and Recreation Staff, and the Office Administration.
We hope this information is informative and motivates you to be part of making these decisions with us. We encourage you to consider being part of the decision-making process by running for Viking Town Council in the next municipal elections in October 2025.
As always, we welcome your comments and feedback. You can contact any of Viking Town Council, all contact information is found on our web site or by email at info.account@viking.ca.
2. Paving, Sidewalks and Curbs
Paving, Sidewalks and Curbs
This is the second topic the Town of Viking would like to talk about. This is a topic that is on our minds as much as yours.
In our first report we talked about the rough streets in Town, and this is directly tied to this next topic as well. Paving the streets we addressed to explain to you the cost to resurface and repair all the rough streets in town. Preventative maintenance is our goal to ensure we can extend the lifespan of the roads until we are able to afford to fix the sanitary system below it at the same time.
Sidewalks and curbs, just like the roads, are prioritized for repair or replacement based on their condition. The worst areas and sections are dealt with first. Each year we allocate $130,000 to sidewalk and curb repair.
During the summer months we hire a construction company that works in many cities, towns and communities in our region to take care of this for us. They remove the broken, cracked or heaved sections, build forms, and then pour the new sidewalks and curbs.
This work is done by this company as they are experts in it, and as our Public Works staff, during these summer months are working on other maintenance projects around Town: street sweeping, painting lines, and maintaining our green spaces (this includes all Town owned properties like the ball diamonds, soccer fields, Troll Park, Eastview Park, Viking Cemetery, boulevards, and any empty residential lots,) just to name a few!
Please watch for our next post regarding Public Works and the critical role they have in our community. We encourage you to consider being part of the decision-making process by running for Viking Town Council in the next municipal elections in October 2025.
As always, we welcome your comments and feedback. You can contact any of Viking Town Council, all contact information is found on our web site at www.viking.ca, or by email at info.account@viking.ca.
1. Rough Streets in Town
Rough Streets in Town
This is the first topic the Town of Viking would like to talk about. This is a topic that is on our minds as much as yours.
First let’s talk about the current conditions of the streets. There are stretches of pavement in town where it’s in pretty good shape, close to new, and some sections that have been repeatedly patched, and some patches were gravelled at times. So why is this?
One of our biggest challenges is the infrastructure below the street that no one sees, but we rely on every day to live in our homes. The sewer lines are in very poor shape in some parts of town.
We work closely with an Engineering company that helps us make decisions based on the conditions of the infrastructure below the street. This company looks at the camera images of each sewer line to see what’s happening. There are many reasons a line can fail, but the biggest issue seems to be frost heaving, the freeze and thaw we experience each year especially where there’s connections made. Large tree roots and the alkaline soil in our region are also factors.
Some of you might be asking, “Just pave the street, what’s the big deal?” The issue is, to just pave one block in Town, to scrape down the patched road, and then resurface it costs $220,000. Sure we can do that, but what happens when there is a major failure of the sewer line, and we have to dig up that section of street, and we already knew that it was a potential problem area and would need to be repaired based on what the engineering company told us. Now that would be a bad decision to make, knowing all the information we had at hand.
Our Public Works is continually monitoring the roads, and each year fills potholes and performs important preventative work like tarring large cracks to prevent water and ice freezing in those cracks, and then breaking up the paving when it thaws.
Here’s some numbers to consider. As we just mentioned, to just scrape and resurface one Town block (no curbing) the cost is $220,000. To fix a failing sewer line, and repair it to last 60 years or more, then resurface the one Town block costs $500,000. What decision would you make?
The plan we have is to fix the worst and most important issues first. We also have “Emergency Fund”, we call it a “Contingency” for when we have unforeseen major failures of a sewer line or an emergency repair to a water line. We keep on budget, and on plan, so those blocks that need major work are completed first.
The Town of Viking is made up of 45 streets or blocks, approximately 25 km or 16 miles of street of those 15 percent are identified as priorities to repair for a cost of $2,500,000.
We know the streets are rough, we are doing our best to make good decisions, decisions we think you would make, if you were in the same role as we are. We are following a plan we have set out on, to keep our sewer lines working, and in the end have smoother streets to drive on.
Our tax base is approximately 80% residential, which is a challenge for us here in Viking, as larger cities and communities rely more on their commercial tax base to fix sewer lines and streets.
Please watch for our next post regarding how we pay for paving, sidewalks and curbs. We hope it helps you understand the decision-making process Viking Town Council makes for our community. We hope this information is informative and motivates you to be part of making these decisions with us. We encourage you to consider being part of the decision-making process by running for Viking Town Council in the next municipal elections in October 2025.
As always, we welcome your comments and feedback. You can contact any of Viking Town Council, all contact information is found on our web site, or by email at info.account@viking.ca.