Mountain View County will spend more than $200,000 to start construction on a berm that will extend more than four kilometres across the north bank of a new channel of the Red Deer River upstream of Sundre, council voted last week.The decision to go ahead with the first stages of the project came after Reeve Paddy Munro reported that the county should expect ìzero dollarsî from the provincial government in the short term.While Rocky Mountain House MLA Ty Lund backs the county's efforts, Munro said at Tuesday's Municipal Area Partnership meeting, ìTy just flat-out said no money, (Environment Minister Rob) Renner said no money Ö until the leadership is settled.îMunro said he was nevertheless confident that provincial funding would eventually be forthcoming, ìas they're clearly supporting us on everything except money at this time.îBut he reiterated his position that work had to begin immediately to prevent downstream flooding next spring.The next day at council, Munro recommended the county ìbuild the minimum to safely get us through next spring,î even though the structure would not hold up against a one-in-100-year flood event.ìI think we have to do something ñ we've seen the river migrate,î Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere said, agreeing that ìwe do only what we have to right now.îCouncil voted to allocate $200,000 from reserves to construct 270 metres of berm without armouring at a critical point where the land slopes toward Sundre and to selectively fill an area north of where the new channel broke out in late June, about seven kilometres southwest of the town.The estimated cost of the project, which will go out to tender, includes purchasing 30 metres of right of way along the riverbank on two privately owned quarter sections.Administration was also directed to pursue the assembly of other lands needed to construct the entire 4,190-metre structure under terms that had been discussed in-camera.The total estimated cost of the complete berm with armouring is $2.54 million.
