On August 4, 2021, City of Williams Lake Council held a Special Committee of Whole Council meeting to discuss options to address the ongoing deterioration of the City-maintained portion of Dog Creek Road.
Council considered three options, and supported seeking Provincial funding for rehabilitation works for Dog Creek Road from Highway 20 to the municipal boundary. “We will be contacting the Province to request funding to cover the expense of the remediation work until such time as the ground water and resulting slide issues are addressed,” said Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb. “This has gone on long enough, and with increasing safety concerns we will be giving them a hard deadline of two weeks.”
To expedite the process, the City would facilitate the works upon confirmation of funding.
Should Provincial funding be significantly delayed or denied, the City would consider undertaking a road closure process. A closure would result in traffic being directed to other Provincial roadways, such as Roberts Drive or Bond Lake Road, with a view to rehabilitating and reopening that portion of Dog Creek Road once ground water/slide issues are permanently addressed.
“Council considered short-term repairs to Dog Creek Road, but this is a temporary and expensive band-aid that will not adequately address these worsening conditions,” said Councillor Scott Nelson. “Neither can we afford to continue to pay increasing maintenance costs. It is time for the Province to listen to all of its constituents. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured or killed. That is simply not an option.”
Concerned residents are encouraged to send their concerns to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, with a copy to Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson. The email addresses are as follows:
No comments:
Post a Comment