Mountain View County officials, including Reeve Bruce Beattie and Deputy Reeve Patricia McKean, are scheduled to meet with Alberta Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Diana McQueen this week to discuss the need for an upgraded flood protection berm system west of Sundre.The county will travel to Edmonton on Aug. 14 to discuss what roles the various parties can play in getting the berm system constructed, said Beattie.“We will be talking about the berm west of Sundre,” Beattie told the Gazette. “We will be talking about what role (the provincial government) might play in that process. We are going to be telling the minister that we need money.“We started a berm last year that we thought would at least cover off at least the major threat. The recommendation is for quite a more extensive berm system to protect land east of Rge. Rd. 6.0 (southwest of Sundre).”An estimate of the cost of such a berm system has not been prepared, he noted.“It's in the millions, but we are not sure how many,” he said. “It's difficult to pin those numbers down because we are talking about earthwork and engineering, etc. We don't have an actual number.“Of course our argument is that it is their river. We recognize that we have a role to play and also the landowners in the area also have a responsibility. We will be talking to them (landowners) about that once we find out what the costs may be.”High water on the Red Deer River upstream of Sundre this spring caused flooding over a large area, including at the Coyote Creek Golf and RV Resort and on nearby private and county land.Wednesday's regularly scheduled council meeting is the first since the two-week summer hiatus.The need for an upgraded berm system west of Sundre is expected to be on the agenda at that council meeting.The provincial government provided $2.4 million to the Town of Sundre for the construction of flood-protection berms along the Red Deer River. Those berms were completed this past spring.The county would like to see similar berms installed upstream of Sundre to prevent flooding of lands near the river, he said.A timeline for the construction of the berms upstream of Sundre has not been set.“It is certainly a priority,” he said.Meanwhile, county council has a number of other projects and issues coming forward in the coming weeks.“We are going to be following up on the MOAs (memorandums of agreement) with each of the towns, and east side servicing discussions with Sundre,” he said.“And of course Netook Crossing will be talking to us again and we'll be sitting down with them to see how they are going to fit into the new MDP (municipal development plan). We will have to redo the area structure plan in their area as well so it fits with the MDP.”The Netook Crossing business park is located at the southwest corner of the Highway 2 and Highway 27 intersection.
