OLDS — Council has approved $35,000 to prevent snow and ice from falling off the roof of the Operations Centre on to people and vehicles going in and out of facility doors.
The project will be funded via the provincial government’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI).
The $10-million, 48,179-square foot facility, located along 70th Avenue near the Rotary Athletic Park of Olds, was completed last spring. It took just under a year to build it.
The town's debt ceiling was raised to enable it to obtain funds to build the centre. Debentures to do so totalled $10.7 million. Chief administrative officer Brent Williams projects that about $10 million will remain, once town officials make the 2022 payment.
The structure consolidated employees and equipment from three other town-owned buildings — public works, parks, utilities and facilities staff — into one.
“Currently the Operations Centre, it has no snow mitigation system on the roof,” operations director Scott Grieco said during a special council budget meeting on Nov. 30.
“So what happens in the inclement weather through snow and ice build-up, we have eight separate man doors and five separate overhead doors where the snow and ice falls down throughout the winter months.”
Grieco said the plan is to construct a safety railing system on the roof to prevent snow and ice from cascading below. He said buildings in places like Banff have them.
Coun. Dan Daley is dean of the School of Trades and Skills at the Olds College of Agriculture & Technology.
He asked Grieco if the lack of the ice and snow prevention system was named as a deficiency when the operations centre was constructed.
Grieco said it was not. However, he said whenever a new building is constructed “issues and concern” can be found once it’s operating.
"It was something that was not included in the scope of the project on the original build," he said.
“It’s just interesting that this was not caught on the inspection of the construction of the roof of the building, because I’ve heard of people not getting occupation permits when these aren’t installed,” Daley said.
“So it’s just really interesting that this wasn’t done when the roof was installed on the building, so thank you for your clarification.”
“Good point, very good point,” Mayor Judy Dahl said.
