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Summerlea residents ask county to finance dust control

Summerlea residents want the County of Barrhead to take over the cost of dust control in their subdivision. A 15-year resident of the area, current condo association director Robert Suurhoff met with council Dec.

Summerlea residents want the County of Barrhead to take over the cost of dust control in their subdivision.

A 15-year resident of the area, current condo association director Robert Suurhoff met with council Dec. 5 and discussed the possibility of handing over the cost of subsequent applications of the material MG-30 to the municipality. Council accepted his proposal as information.

“My proposition to council was after we’d invested $20,000 of our own money to get our roads up to snuff, the county would take over the cost of applying MG-30 for us because frankly, we’re out of money. I’ve been the director for the last 12 of the 15 years I have been a resident.

“I’ve heard a lot of negative things said about the county and the condo association not being able to connect, as far as services that are required and I know the discussions aren’t productive,” Suurhoff said, noting the association pays its taxes and the mill rate is the same as any other subdivision in the area.

In addition, Suurhoff said the residents follow all of the county-mandated regulations and have never considered themselves a separate entity, regardless of the fact they are a condominium association.

“We feel we are a part of the county, but over the past years, every time we’ve approached council, we have been told we are responsible for everything within our boundaries. Our problem is the roads and specifically dust control.”

Suurhoff said the problem has gotten worse since he moved there in 2004.

“The type of road crush that is used has a silty, powdery sand mixed into the rock and that’s what we have to use. We’ve tried to make the best of it but in our 86-parcel subdivision, when people come onto our roads, the dust is absolutely terrible and air quality is abysmal. I know this is typical of subdivisions with gravel roads but something needs to be done,” Suurhoff said, adding an application to cost-share oiling expenses with the county six years ago was denied.

“That was due to the increase of oil at the time. However, the following year, I was introduced to MG-30 and after doing some of my own research on the material, I got really interested,” he said.

Suurhoff said a three-year program was set up in 2016 with Mike Holliday of Kortech Calcium Services Ltd.

“The idea was to apply MG-30 in the spring and to keep us updated. I’d say there was a 60 per cent improvement with respect to road stability and drivability and because it was so successful that first year, we elected to do it again this year. With the soft spots that we had to deal with, I’d say there was an almost 80 per cent improvement,” Suurhoff said, adding he is amazed at the impact the material has had on dust and road conditions.

On a question from Coun. Darrell Troock regarding condo fees, Surrhoff said Summerlea residents pay $125 yearly.

“We have our club house and community league expenses in our fees. We have never considered ourselves a separate entity from the county, not in the 15 years I’ve been here,” he said.

“That’s half the problem right there. You look at any condo association and I don’t know of any that are under $100 per month,” Troock said, adding he believed the fees were far too low and the association should vote its own termination immediately.

Coun. Marvin Schatz agreed.

“If they are supposed to be responsible for the roads inside the condo association, it sounds like, to me, the association let its residents down, not us,” Schatz said, adding he could not understand why the association has not raised its fees to collect the appropriate amount of money.

However, Surrhoff explained the association wanted to work with the municipality.

“We have submitted a letter in the past outlining our desire to hand over day-to-day control to the county. We should put aside our differences. There is no benefit, no gain to either side. Our $60,000 tax base gives us a little bit of service but you know, we aren’t asking for signage, for culverts, for streetlights. We don’t have a business or a farming operation in our limits.

“We operated under the assumption our taxes would cover all of the services I’ve already mentioned and we’re trying to survive as a community. We don’t promote ourselves as a condo association,” he said.

Troock argued the county has done work there.

“You’re paying for it but I’m sure it is at a reduced fee. You get whatever your association applied for when it was formed. I didn’t make the rules,” he said, adding the problem was the fact Summerlea was, in fact, a condo association.

“We haven’t asked for lights or signage, both of which are huge money. We have water issues. Insurance issues. We’ve had to cover it all and it always comes to a dead end. That’s why it was me and not an entire room of residents screaming to be heard,” Suurhoff said.

Coun. Bill Lane, a resident of Thunder Lake, said he understood Summerlea’s plight.

“When I first got on council in 2001, this issue was the same burr in my saddle. I know there are different rules for different associations. Out of the three subdivisions, it represents $261,000 in taxes.

“I know what their dilemma is and I know it has been brought up a few times before. Everything they do, we do at Thunder Lake ourselves,” Lane said.

“That just floored me, hearing how low the fees are. I, myself, pay the same amount for membership to two community halls in my division for a year.”

Troock agreed.

“Now you’re talking about taking my tax dollars and I live on a dusty road myself, and now I have to put my tax dollars in your subdivision to look after your dust,” he said, adding the county has a pilot project for MG-30 application already in place and another would be counter-productive.

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