Williams Lake city council has asked staff to explore the idea of having Dog Creek Road and Fox Mountain Road no longer be the City’s reponsibility.
During a committee of the whole meeting Tuesday, Feb. 19, Coun. Scott Nelson said council would like to give responsibility for Dog Creek Road and Fox Mountain Road, presently inside the city limits, back to the province.
“What would be the bill hitting us if we had to repair Dog Creek Road?” Nelson asked, to which Gary Muraca, the city’s director of municipal services answered, “$1.5 million to repair the road and that does not take into consideration the slide.”
Presently the City is spending $15,000 to $20,000 a year maintaining the slide and patching on top of that, Muraca said.
When asked how much asphalt is in the slide location on Dog Creek Road, Muraca said a “lot” but the more asphalt is added, the more it slides.
Read more: Ongoing land slippage being addressed by city
“It’s time to do the geotechnical and do the major repair,” Muraca said. “There are a lot of people driving that road every day and they will tell you that we are chasing something we will never fix until we do it right.”
Nelson said if there are issues that are costing significant dollars council needs to address them.
“This is one of the avenues we’d like staff to look at,” Nelson said. “We are not making any final decisions, and it is just fact finding right now, but if we want to take a look at it then say to the province — ‘take the roads back, it’s costing us too much, it shouldn’t be the burden of the city of Williams Lake.”
Muraca said Fox Mountain was recently repaved last year and is in good shape.
Coun. Jason Ryll said it is appropriate for the City to look at divesting itself of the roads, especially of Dog Creek Road.
“At this point that stretch of road is limited for its capacity for taxpayers and we want to look at any kind of expansion on that stretch of road then we are looking at substantial bills just in geotech and stability for future development,” Ryll said. “When we take into consideration the inevitable liability of the slide or sloughing on that corner, I think you are absolutely right. We are chasing something that is never going to be solved in our life times.”
Muraca told the Tribune that Dog Creek Road was built by the department of highways and the City took over responsibility for it afterwards.
“Since that time there’s been the slide and it’s a constant problem and issue,” Muraca said. “The question is should city residents and taxpayers be paying that bill? We basically have two houses up by the city limit sign that actually pay City of Williams Lake taxes.”
Council directed staff to come back with a report.
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