City council passed a motion 6-1 during the June 26 regular meeting asking city administrators to produce a report on whether the work of Moose Jaw’s pothole-filling crews could be supplemented by an outside contractor.
The motion was proposed by Councillor Dawn Luhning with the following wording:
"That administration bring forward a report to City Council for the June 26, 2023 meeting to contract out filling potholes around the City, to begin effective immediately."
“I had somebody here last weekend from Vancouver, just a client of mine, the first thing she said to me was, ‘My goodness, are your roads atrocious.’ I don’t want that to be us,” Luhning said during the discussion. “All I’m asking is that we consider doing it a different way, because if we keep trying to do what we’re doing, it’s not working, in my opinion.”
Report from Public Works & Utilities
The City of Moose Jaw currently has no director of public works and utilities, following Darrin Stephanson’s last day on April 28.
The directing of the Public Works & Utilities Department is being shared temporarily by Bevan Harlton, director of engineering services, and Rod Montgomery, the city’s fire chief.
Harlton reported to council that over 2,300 potholes have been filled to date, with roughly half the pothole repair budget used up. Harlton took the opportunity to add that many roads in the city need more complete replacement.
“Often the perception is that Public Works should be doing more,” Harlton said. “The reality is, is there comes a time when a road can no longer be repaired. … There are a number of locations where if you go and look at the numbers, there’s been significant pothole repair, however, the pavement condition of the location warrants capital work.”
Montgomery addressed council alongside Harlton to point out that on July 1, the city’s second pothole-filling truck will become active, doubling the speed of repairs.
“Streets and roads looks first at street sweeping, cleaning, [and] painting — that works in unison,” he explained. “So, their crew is minimized as far as the pothole repairs. … Come July 1, street sweeping is in its last week here and will be completed. Those crews will be reassigned, and their focus will then change more to potholes, so we’ll have an additional truck out.”
Discussion by council
Luhning took issue with Harlton and Montgomery’s statements, saying she has not seen enough work being done to be satisfied with the public works crews.
“I did hear from Mr. Harlton a couple of weeks ago that bus routes were a priority, right? And I see Mr. Harlton nodding his head, and I’m just going to point out that 13th Avenue, which I brought up a number of times, is a bus route, and it is undrivable. Athabasca Street West from 9th to Main Street West is a bus route as well, and I drive that route every day and I don’t see any of the holes that I’m avoiding with my vehicle filled.
“So, I’m really struggling to see where the potholes are being filled around the city.”
Councillor Heather Eby said that while she could appreciate the intention behind Luhning’s motion, she was more inclined to support improvements to the existing program. She also said that she has seen the work being done by city crews and encouraged residents to use the City of Moose Jaw mobile app to report areas needing work.
“If we were to approve this now, those things need to go to tender, and then that’s probably August, September, realistically, before anything would be done.”
Mayor Clive Tolley pointed out that Luhning’s motion asked for a report, not for actual contracting, and wondered at her wording and intention.
“I’m just wondering if you could clarify. Is it that you want the administration report as soon as possible?”
Luhning said she wanted a report first, but once a report has been submitted, she thought work should start without delay.
Councillor Doug Blanc also agreed with the motion, but said if contracting did take place, he’d like to see follow-up inspections to be sure the repair wasn’t ineffective or substandard. He also noted that despite Luhning’s motivation, contracting likely wouldn’t happen this year.
“The way I read this, this isn’t a definite, ‘we’re hiring a contractor to fill potholes this year,’ it’s just to look at it and get a report back. With that in mind, I’ll certainly be supporting it.”
“I do agree with Councillor Luhning’s motion,” said councillor Jamey Logan. “I don’t think there’s any harm in investigating where this will take us.”
Logan’s sentiments were ultimately shared by the majority of the council, and the motion passed with only Eby opposed.
