Abbotsford residents reminded to keep off of service alleys
The city of Abbotsford will see new signs indicating that unfinished service alleyways should not be used by the general public posted along these alleys following the approval of the city council at their meeting last Wednesday evening.
The intended purpose for alleys in question is to provide the city with a way to reach and service utilities, like sewer, water, or electrical systems, that need repair or replacement. However, there has been some concern from the city over the extended use of these access ways by residents along them, some of which is resulting in damage.
“We would like to make the alleys that aren’t meant to be driven on just service alleys and get the signage up so that it can be enforced and we can keep people off of them,” department of public works head Craig Stuttgen said at Wednesday’s meeting. “A lot of these, there’s no reason for them to be back there; they all have driveways.”
Many of the service alleys are not paved or do not have gravel, usually remaining as grass. When the grass alleys see continued use as a roadway for vehicles that they were not intended to support, especially in wet conditions, they can get torn up and damaged.
“With one alley, we had cut a drainage through it so that it would drain down the property line like it was supposed to, but now with everyone rutting it up, it’s holding water and they had a car stuck back there last week,” Stuttgen said.
The new signs will restrict access to these unfinished, grass service alleys for maintenance vehicles only. The city did not want to put gates at the ends of the alleys to close them off with a physical barrier as this would make it difficult for their own vehicles to use them as intended when trying to address utility problems.
Other Business
n We Energies forfeited a $1,000 deposit they had made to the city earlier this year for excavation work on Linden Street due to the company needing to dig up parts of the roadway that they had not expected to and hitting the sanitary sewer, resulting in the city needing to pay for the repairs. The energy company stated that they would not pay any further deposits for similar work, noting that they were exempt from such deposits. Stuttgen asked that an alternative to the deposits be found to keep the exempt companies accountable, citing numerous incidents where the city needed to pay for repairs to damaged storm sewers over the past few years.
Part of the problem is that these damages are often not discovered until some time after the project has finished, sometimes after the six-year statute of limitations for such cases has expired.
“By the time we find it, the damage is done. It’s too late,” Stuttgen said following an example of a project on Spruce Street that saw the city needing to pay for 500 feet more of storm sewer than expected as it had a gas main in it. “What happens is that if they bore through our storm sewer and they fill it with a gas line, when the leaves and everything start to collect in there and we jet it out, we never actually realize what the problem is. And then it takes years for it to fail, before enough stuff leaks in there and then you end up with a sinkhole in the road. So then we end up paying for the damage that they’ve done years down the line.”
Stuttgen and city administrator Josh Soyk hoped to have an alternative solution to the problem presented to the council at their next meeting.
n The council examined alternatives to the savings accounts that many of the city’s funds currently reside in. Soyk presented some of the research he had done after consulting with a number of area financial institutions and there was a general consensus that the city should look at moving these funds into certificates of deposit (CDs) or money market accounts, given the much higher interest rates offered there.
No action was taken at this time, as Soyk noted he still would want to speak with the city’s auditor before doing anything else, but the council indicated that he should take the next steps in the process.
