Grey Highlands council has voted to reverse a decision to lower gravel road maintenance standards in the municipality.
At its committee of the whole budget meeting on Feb. 6, council voted to reverse an earlier budget decision to reduce gravel road maintenance.
At a previous meeting, council had voted to reduce the amount of gravel going on local roads from 250 metric tonnes every other year to 200 metric tonnes. The move saved $207,500 on the tax levy or approximately 1.5 per cent.
During the Feb. 6 meeting, coun. Dan Wickens brought the issue back to the council table for consideration and called the earlier decision “a mistake."
“I want to somehow convince council to rethink the reduction in gravel,” said Wickens.
Wickens found support for his move from municipal staff.
Chris Cornfield, director of transportation and public spaces, recommended the standard remain at 250 metric tonnes.
Cornfield said the condition of local gravel roads has been improving since the municipality changed its maintenance standard to a higher quality quarry stone material being applied every two years.
“I do believe the standard of 250 tonnes is where we need to be at,” he said.
Mayor Paul McQueen and Coun. Paul Allen argued in favour of keeping the reduced standard in the 2024 budget. Both said at the time the municipality upgraded the maintenance standard, council was told that in time lower amounts of material could be used because the roads would be in better shape.
“We’re at almost nine per cent,” McQueen said of the draft 2024 budget. “We were told in the past we could back off (on the amount of gravel),” he said.
Allen said in the past it was suggested at some point in the future an application of fresh gravel every third year was a possibility.
“We were told a number of years ago if we used better gravel we’d get to the point we could go to every third year,” said Allen. “Going to less gravel every other year is a good compromise. We need to try and realize the savings we were basically promised five or six years ago.”
Ultimately council voted 4-3 in favour of reversing the earlier decision to lower the gravel maintenance standard. McQueen, Allen and Coun. Tom Allwood were opposed.
