The City of Lacombe has approved a couple of projects that will take advantage of the money provided by the provincial governments Municipal Stimulus Program.

$1,663,384 was allocated to the City of Lacombe, which will first go towards a new snow storage facility, a priority item in Lacombe for some time since our current facilities are not compliant with provincial regulations. The remaining funds will go towards maintaining and upgrading Highway 12, which runs right through the heart of Lacombe. 

CAO for the City of Lacombe Matthew Goudy says they plan on re-purposing one of the old wastewater lagoons on the east side to store the snow, and it will also add a couple of other amenities as well, such as a more heavy-duty road in order to handle the dump trucks filled with snow.

“That project, because of the location, also offers up an opportunity for us to add some facilities for dog owners in the city, so we’re going to have a new off-leash dog area, as well as a parking area for the stocked fish pond.”

Goudy says large piles of snow build up from the winter can cause issues when it melts in the spring, and having a dedicated spot for all of it will make maintaining those hazards a lot easier.

“Some of the reasons that Alberta Environment and Parks does have guild Ines for snow storage facilities is because if it’s just left to melt anywhere, you do get these weird runoffs that contain potentially salt, potentially debris and garbage from the road, it gets into your storm system and bogs things up… and of course can be detrimental to the environment there.”

While the improvement to Highway 12 is estimated to be between $1.3 and $1.8 million, the City will only use the remaining funds not used for the snow storage facility, which has an estimated cost of around $933,000.

The City will submit both projects to the Government of Alberta by October 1st, 2020.