Water plant’s new roof in place

April 20, 2021

By Kristena Schutt-Moore

Veolia Environmental Services is the company that Bancroft hired to manage the town’s water and waste water services. Every year they make quarterly reports to the council in regards to the operations, updates on services and make requests for items that may be needed.

During the Tuesday, April 13 meeting of council Duane Forth gave the first quarterly report of the year. He stated that the water plant has been doing well. Over the past year there were two water main breaks, one on Cleak Street and the other near the water tower. The break on Cleak Street was bad enough that an entire section of water main pipe had to be replaced and Veolia had to report to an Adverse Water Quality Report to the Ministry of Environment as they lost all pressure in the line. However, no harm was done other than water lost in the pipe and Veolia and the town were able to replace the ruptured section of pipe and return clear water to home and business owners on the line.

The town’s water plant’s new roof has been completed, and with it all water leaks through the roof into the building have stopped. Forth also added, “There will be no more squirrels running around the building now.”

Designed similarly to the North Hastings Community Centre’s roof, it will help with energy efficiency at the water treatment plant as the electric heaters will no longer have to run as much and the insulation will help keep the building warm. Forth asked the council to think of the idea of replacing the electric heaters in the long term, as each one consumes as much energy as two or three commercial clothes dryers when they are running. He suggested looking into alternatives such as natural gas or propane heaters. Plans and funds for this is looking towards the town’s capital budget of 2022.

Currently the town’s work manager Perry Kelly is looking to replace the garage door at the treatment plant. It is believed that it is the same door that was put in when the building was first built. Kelly is concerned about staff safety as well as heat loss through the garage. To improve this he will be looking for a garage door that is insulated and automatic so that staff won’t have to pull it open manually.

With the calmer melting season, Veolia is predicting limited infiltration into the waste water system. This means that there will be less excess water to be treated this year. However, they are waiting to see if Spring brings more rain.

Veolia and town staff are still looking for help from area businesses. Last year a business on main street was found to have their rainwater run off attached to the storm water system. While the name of the business was not released it was said that the hook up to the town pipeline was due to the age of the building as when it was originally built it was common for such connections to be made.

Kelly said that in working with the business the town was able to properly set up the business rainwater line and remove it from the storm water management system. With the help of other area businesses who have similar hook ups the town is hopeful that they can cut down on the amount of water that is treated unnecessarily at the wastewater plant, which will help lower costs.

Town allows vendors

The Town of Bancroft has officially approved the vendor bylaw. There is one location available, located at Millennium Park, however it will only be open on weekends in the summer months and vendors will only be able to have the location two weekends a month. This is to ensure that all interested parties will be able to have a chance to use the available space.

The summer has been divided into two groups from May 21 to July 15 and July 16 to October 11. The town will put out a call a month ahead of each group and the vendors will have 10 days to respond. The vendors will be requested to choose their first, second and third choices of weekends during each group. The choices to help staff prioritize weekends that are in high demand so that they can be appointed as fairly as possible with the use of a random number generator.

Each weekend rental will be a $100 fee, with an additional $50 surcharge if hydro is required. There will be no water made available. On long weekends the rental fee will be $150.

Vendors who wish to use the space will have some limitations placed on them such as, not being allowed to cut down, prune or remove any trees or vegetation or alter any other feature in the area, serve, give away or supply alcohol at any time, or provide dining furnishings, including tables, chairs or dining tents.

Council passed this bylaw and vendors interested in more information about how to apply for a weekend can call the town office at 613-332-3331.

The Bancroft Business Improvement Area also put forward a proposal to create a Take-Out Hub at the vendor location. This hub would allow for people to order their meals from area businesses then take it to Millennium Park to eat. This is to help restaurants that are unable to have outdoor eating areas at their locations to still serve their food.

“We can’t afford to lose our businesses,” executive officer of the BBIA Jody Yantha explained. “They are all in dire straits. There is a really urgent need for us to do something to support them.”

In their application the BBIA included 10 letters of support from different restaurants in the town. The hub is to include an area to eat and a menu board so that hungry members of the public can call the businesses that offer delivery right at the park and have it delivered to them at the hub, plus it would be available throughout the week.

The BBIA has designed their Take-Out Hub to not need any additional support from the town other than take away garbage and top up hands sanitizer in the Millennium Park bathrooms. Both these requests are jobs the town’s work crew already do.

The council voted that the BBIA’s request be moved to a committee of the whole meeting so that it would give more time for council members to review the proposal and give both the BBIA members and the council members the ability to discuss and plan.

Council accepts some expenses

The provincial government has moved back the deadline for the Asset Management Plan. The plan was originally due on July 1, but has now been moved back a full year to July 1, 2022.

The plan has to feature infrastructure items such as roads and buildings. So to help with this the staff brought forward a request to hire WSP Canada Inc. to help create the plan for $175,000.

Town treasurer Bill Davie said that the staff wanted to get started on the plan sooner rather than later as 2022 is promising a very busy year with several large projects to be completed, such as the Connecting Link projects.

The council also approved the purchase of a roll off truck and trailer. This purchase will be debt financed by the town for a total of $190,000 plus HST.

Infrastructure Ontario will be financing the entire purchase and then the town will make payments to Infrastructure Ontario. The payment plan term will be for five years with an interest rate of about two per cent.

The lease of two 2500 trucks was also passed by council. These are to replace the 2007 Chevrolet diesel three quarter ton for the public works department and the 2010 GMC half ton for the parks and recreation department. Both will be fit with snow plows at a later date.

The trucks will be leased from Lally Ford with a four year operating lease. There were no bids from dealerships from within town.