Officials hope for quick land sale
By Collin Gallant on April 6, 2018.
Medicine Hat News Administrators in Medicine Hat are hoping to expedite a minor land sale to Cypress County so work to flood-proof the Veinerville water supply system — as well as add new capacity for a planned water co-op — can proceed this summer. Last year, the county received an Alberta Community Resiliency Grant worth $774,000 toward relocating the county’s water vault and booster station currently situated near Seven Persons Creek and Highway 41A inside city limits. That station has gone off line or been damaged during two floods in the past eight years. That’s left the residents of the county hamlet without water, though the new station would be built on higher ground to the east. The land purchase, which was discussed at Wednesday city infrastructure committee meeting, involves two small sties, totalling one-half acre in size, for a combined price of about $15,900. Cypress County officials have already pre-qualified contractors, and hopes to soon tender the contract for the work that must be complete by early 2019 as a condition of the grant. Considering the timeline, Medicine Hat city council will be asked to delegate final authority to negotiate the agreement to chief administrator Merete Heggelund so the two parties can settle the deal quickly. Conditions described by land department officials include a new water supply agreement, as well as standard requirements. Committee members said the land that otherwise is of little use, and the sale would lead to new water sales as well as acting as a good neighbour. County council has long discussed the possibility of building the new booster station with enough capacity to supply a proposed water co-op that would serve areas east of the city going towards Dunmore and beyond. It had more than 300 rural residents had registered on a preliminary basis as the group seeks grant money to build the line. According to documents, the county is currently seeking an additional water licence to supply the water to the line, about 215 acre feet, or 260,000 cubic metres, per year, that would be treated by the city and delivered to the gate at a bulk rate. 13-12
