While water restrictions necessary for upgrades at the water tower will go into effect tomorrow (May 28), the town is looking into the possibility of residents still being able to water their vegetable gardens and flowers sometime during the next 10 weeks.
During last night’s council meeting, Mayor Roy Avis said council and administration is “working on an alternative solution to allow for certain periods of specific water use.”
“With the water tower out of service, the town’s staff will begin monitoring the pattern of water consumption over the period of approximately one week,” he noted.
“This monitoring period is necessary to determine if there is a possibility of revising the water restriction during a certain period of the day to allow customers to water vegetable gardens, flowers and shrubs,” the mayor added.
“Water use for lawn watering, filling swimming pools, and washing vehicles will, in all likelihood, not be permitted unless consumption patterns allow for it,” he stressed.
Mayor Avis reiterated the repairs to the water tower are necessary, and it must be taken out of service for the next 10 weeks for this work to be done.
But with the water tower out of service, the capacity to store water for fire protection will be reduced. As such, a water restriction for non-essential use of water externally must be in effect during this period.
As previously reported, all water customers in the Town of Fort Frances and Couchiching First Nation will not be allowed to use water externally from May 28-July 30 for the following activities:
•watering lawns and gardens;
•filling swimming pools;
•washing vehicles; and
•any other use of water that is not essential to public health and safety, personal hygiene, or to sustain a commercial activity at the municipal address where water is used.
In order to have access to a supply of river water for the above mentioned non-essential use of water, the town will be setting up a water pumping system at the Sorting Gap Marina dock for all water customers to fill tanks and containers.
In related news, town council last night received a presentation from the J.W. Walker School Environmental Club to partner and promote a water conservation plan involving rain barrels.
Walker students Hailey Clendenning and Alyssa Spence explained to council that rain barrels “help reduce the load on storm sewers and wastewater treatment facilities, and help reduce peak water demands in hot summer months.”
Following the example set by the City of Thunder Bay, the town and environmental club could work together to promote and sell rain barrels to local residents at a cost of about $65 each.
The club would take care of the promotion and delivery of barrels while the town would handle the ordering, selling, and temporary storage of the barrels prior to pickup.
Council applauded the environmental club for its initiative, and referred the offer to the Operations and Facilities executive committee for its recommendation.
Also at last night’s meeting, council:
•passed a bylaw to authorize the levy and collection of taxes for all municipal purposes in the Town of Fort Frances for 2008 (tax bills will go out in mid- to late-June, and will be payable in two instalments—the first being due July 31, 2008 and the second by Aug. 29, 2008;)
•denied a request from Melvin Haukaas for permission to place a windmill at his parents’ grave marker;
•directed that the matter regarding building permits 2006-077 and 2006-078 (Bliss) be dealt with administratively through the Chief Building Official’s office;
•approved a request from Barbara Avis, property owner at 532 Colonization Rd. E., to install piping for a temporary river water pumping system within the existing storm sewer system (Mayor Avis declared a conflict of interest on this item);
•agreed to a request from M. Aileen Carroll, the minister responsible for seniors, to proclaim June as “Seniors’ Month” in the Town of Fort Frances;
•passed a bylaw to approve a licensing and software maintenance agreement with Direct IT Corp. for building and planning department purposes;
•passed a bylaw to approve an agreement with C. Cousineau, N. Cousineau, A. Peters, and L. Peters to hold “laser tag” activities within town;
•passed a bylaw to approve a contract with Select Construction for upgrades to the recycle building;
•accepted an invitation from the Fort Frances Kiwanis Club to attend an open house June 12 at Sunny Cove Camp, with mayor, council, and senior administration given permission to attend; and
•received a report from the Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
