Bonnyville Looks into How to Fix North Point Flooding

The North Point Subdivsion’s flooding problems were the topic of discussion among Council last week, as the Town is looking into ways to improve drainage problems. Mayor of Bonnyville, Gene Sobolewski says when the subdivision was developed there were a number of issues due to flatness, “there’s been issues going on for years. We’re going to get our engineers to get another set of eyeballs on it, to see if there are alternatives that are available to us; that perhaps don’t cost as much [to fix].”

“When it was first built, there was some issues,” Mayor Sobolewski explains his thoughts on the area’s problems. North Point Subdivision is north of the old railway tracks, in the industrial area of town. “I don’t it was properly designed to begin with. Event the original plans show ditches at 0.1 percent and it’s like: Wow! You can’t have that. Not on ditch-work, so it’s incredibly flat and nothing is flowing.” On years with moderate to large rainfall, “it always just floods,” explains the mayor. While the engineering company, Stantec, is working on the 51st avenue construction project, the Town will have the firm look into North Point.

The Town will look into ways to fix these problems, while finishing the 51st avenue construction project, explains Mayor Sobolewski. “We’ll be going from 51st avenue, all the way to Highway 41 and of course we have new engineers and they want to do things differently. They’re going to do [the construction] on a block-by-block basis.” Mayor Sobolewski says the new company is doing something that’s a little more innovated, “they’re committing to dialogue and collaboration with the businesses and residents. So the businesses and the residents will have a place to go to voice any concerns and find resolutions.”

Unlike other firms, this won’t be a one-time public meeting, rather, explains the mayor, “this is going to be ongoing, so we don’t have a repeat of what happened last year.” Construction is expected to last the entire season, May-September 2016.