Open house at town hall March 7

LAURIE WEIR

Thom Street in Perth will soon be undergoing reconstruction. 

Grant Mahon, director of environmental services gave the town’s committee of the whole an overview of the project. 

He said they are “building on the lessons learned from the Mary Street project of having the open house process and also being transparent to council so they can be champions of the design,” Mahon said during March 5 meeting. 

Mahon said there has already been an open house to hear from the community about what they want to include.

After feedback, they’ve come up with a final drawing that will go to tender next week. 

The street will include two travel lanes and a new sidewalk in the same location – either five of six feet in width will depend on the offset from the utility poles and the property line, Mahon explained. 

There will be no parking on the street — there is none now — and there will be raised curbing to deter parking. 

“Generally, the street will look as it is now,” he said, “except it will be delineated with two concrete curbs on either side,” which will help differentiate public and private property. 

They will also incorporate a storm sewer network which doesn’t currently exist, “so we’ll get positive flow and drainage on the street.” 

As Mahon has mentioned during budget talks, there is a lot of rock on this street that will need to be removed, which is part of the design process, he said. 

“As we come back with tender results, you’re going to see that reflected,” he said. “These utilities were put in the ‘40s, in very narrow rock trenches.”

The intent is to lower the street slightly for positive water and sewer flows.

“That’s the general overview – there will be an open house on Thursday night (March 7), from 4 to 6 p.m.”

The open house will be held at town hall in the court room, right inside the front doors. 

Residents on the street have been notified of the meeting via hand-delivered notices, Mahon said. “We’ve also done spillover areas on both Peter and John streets,” as those in the neighbourhood will have a better idea of any concerns on Thom Street that need to be addressed.

Coun. Jim Boldt said he was concerned with the rock and during the Mary Street reconstruction, they hit an amount of bedrock at one end of the street that had to be removed and that added to the cost of the project.

He asked if companies who bid on the job would do their due diligence before bidding to compensate for the rock removal, or is there information that the town can give to bidders with respect to the amount of rock they will encounter, so “we don’t get any surprises halfway through this project,” Boldt said, and they don’t up the costs by $200,000 to $300,000 to take the rock away. “That’s my only concern.”

Mahon said there is a line item for rock removal in the contract, and through pre-testing they are able to quantify how much rock will need to be removed.

“What I have done in the past is overestimate the volume of rock based on (test) boreholes, so that it pre-empts any additional bidding,” Mahon said.

Coun. Gary Waterfield asked about the start/completion dates.

They’re hoping to start in May and completion will depend on the contractor, Mahon said, as they will establish block captains – one or two – so they can communicate with local residents about issues and timelines. They will be meeting every third Thursday, he said. The block captain will maintain communication between the contractor and municipal staff and any questions residents have can go through the captains. 

It’s information sharing where the captain will become the champion of the street, Mahon explained. 

“It’s a really strong process of communicating to a neighbourhood,” Mahon said. 

Councillors unanimously supported the report.