By Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — The contracting out of trucks to haul in gravel has been a time saver for the public works department in Whitewater Region Township said manager Bill Misener.
“The first thing I did this morning was seek out Bill and shake his hand and after that I paid a compliment to Christine (FitzSimons, chief administrative officer) also with respect to what’s been going on in the township with delivery of gravel on our roads,” said Councillor Joey Trimm at last Wednesday’s public works committee meeting. “Everybody is making positive comments about what we are doing.”
There have been eight to 10 belly-dump trucks hired to deliver the gravel while township employees work with them to spread it out on the roads, he said.
“It’s not as if our guys are sitting around while we’re hiring these trucks,” he said.
Along with spreading the gravel on the roads, there is patching, brushing and other road work going on as well, he added.
The gravel trucks have been going for about one-and-a-half weeks putting about 25,000 to 30,000 tons of A gravel on the roads, Mr. Misener said. The roads done so far include Acres, Meath Hill, Sturgeon Mountain, Finchley, and McLaughlin from Beachburg Road to Sturgeon Mountain Road.
“We’re about half-way done the amount of gravel we want to get out this year,” he said. “It’s working very, very well.”
Along with the belly trucks, township equipment includes two graders, a packer, water trucks and a crew coming behind to fix the driveway entrances, Mr. Misener said. Within a day, calcium is then placed on the road that has been graded, he added.
Coun. Trimm estimated the amount of gravel put out this year is more than all of the time Mr. Misener has been working for the township.
Ms. FitzSimons asked Mr. Misener to explain the difficulties with contracting out.
“Contracting out sounds easy, pick up the phone and say send me 10 belly dumps,” he said. “But it’s not always as easy to do the contracting out. In our case, with the belly dumps our crews have to work with them.”
But, when the gravel roads were ready, it would rain, which means the gravel could not be dumped on the roads, and then the roads would have to be graded again before the gravel was applied, he explained. That meant the belly-dumping had to be put off for quite some time, he said.
“It works well when you get a good stretch (of weather),” he said.
He said he was concerned council may have felt he was not doing what was asked, which was contracting out, but it’s not that way.
“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that everything has to fit perfectly in order to get it to work properly,” he stated.
Mr. Misener said using the belly trucks is much easier, because it drives and drops the load. At times, it doesn’t have to be graded right away and traffic can flow easier. When township trucks are used, there is concern where the gravel is dumped because they have to watch where the overhead wires are, he noted.
Coun. Trimm said the employees should not fear being put out of a job just because there are some jobs contracted out.
“Without them, this wouldn’t work (the contracting out),” he said.
Mr. Misener said the employees are happy the belly dumps are here, because there is so much more road work getting done.
He is also working on getting the Westmeath sand dome up to standards. He received an engineer’s report and was advised a bracket was needed to fix up the bottom of the dome, which required a welder to fix. The structure is about 20 to 30 years old, so the structural engineer said the top must be fixed as well.
The fire department needed a main tower checked, so a zoom-boom had to be hired to look at it. It was agreed that when the tower was being looked at, the boom could also be used to check out the dome. However, Mr. Misener said, there is no word on when the tower will be looked at. So, this is a job that is sitting until the tower company gets back to him.
Coun. Trimm said the tarp should have been replaced about 10 years ago.
“If the tarp goes this winter, we are in trouble with putting up sand,” he added.
He’s hoping if the engineer says the dome is fixable, the tarp is being repaired so it’s ready when the structure is fixed.
