Fence keeping deer off runway

Staff

The new deer fence at the Fort Frances Airport has been doing its job.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said Wilco Contractors Superior Inc. completed work on the fence in mid-October and since it’s been up, no deer have been inside it.
But he noted a bear did get in.
“It wrecked a little bit of the fence,” Brown told council at its meeting Monday night.
“It crawled underneath the gate.
“We had to lower the gate because we had it up too high. It actually dug underneath the gate,” Brown explained.
“But we haven’t had any deer inside the fenced area, so it’s doing the job it’s supposed to do.”
The fence, about five km in length, is a 2.4-metre high, fixed-knot game fence complete with two-strand high-tensile wire.
Funding for the fencing, to the tune of $589,900, was announced June 29 through Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP).
Council then awarded the fence tender to Wilco in August at an estimated cost of $381,743.38.
Meanwhile, Brown said all of this year’s capital projects have been wrapped up, with the lone exception being the watermain “looping” job at the Shevlin wood yard easement between Nelson Street and Church Street.
He noted Resolute Forest Products has moved the wood from the wood yard so the job can be done, but the contractor is tied up with other work for the next two weeks.
If the weather holds out, the work should be done the week of Dec. 12.
This job includes installing 85 metres of six-inch watermain and a hydrant that has to be put in.
A similar “looping” job on the watermain on Sixth Street between Portage and McKenzie was completed this summer.
Water meters
Brown also noted Metercor Inc., the subcontractor working for Elster Metering, has been in town since Nov. 14 installing the new water meters for industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) customers here.
A total of 180 new ICI water meters are being installed locally, replacing those which have reached the end of their life cycle.
Only about 60 more meters have to be installed.
A total of 299 Energy Axis water 2.0 modules on ICI water meters, which will enable automatic meter reading for all 299 local ICI customers, also are being installed.
About 20 of these modules have to be hooked up.
Any ICI customers who have not contacted the company about getting a new water meter should call them at 1-855-745-8500 and make an appointment.
They’ll come and put in a new one.
Brown noted the good news is the metering project is almost done; the bad news is all the ICI customers will be getting a bill by Christmas for their new meters.
The town will switching to automatic water meter reading in time for the first billing at the end of February, 2012.
The automatic water meter reading is piggy-backing on the existing smart meter reading system put in place by the Fort Frances Power Corp.