Finally spring has arrived and Montrose is still working on the water problems that occurred with the detection of coli forms in our water and caused a boil water notice to be put into effect. This to a water system that was deemed at one time to be one of the finest in North America.
Administration does not know where the coli forms came from but suspect one of the wells. This led to another problem, which is, “How do we disinfect the wells in a highly sensitive area (e.g. Beaver Creek) with high volumes of chlorine at a very high pressure.”
This required some piping modifications that are being done to engineering and Interior Health specifications. Once these are done we will flush the complete system again to engineering and IH standards with tests to be run two or three times with no coli forms appearing then things will be back to normal.
But the system will have been modified so that the village can do a proper, twice yearly, flushing procedure to meet regulations and make sure the boil water never happens again.
This being said we would like to see a reduction in driveway and street washing as this fills up the storm sewers, which then have to be vacuumed out.
Sweep and rake your lawn to the curb and we will do one more street sweeping weather permitting (no dust).
Administration and council is working with the MOT to have the highway swept in good time. Some of our citizens think the works crew used too much sand others not enough as a lot of slippery conditions for the walkers during the past winter.
Now enough about the water but please try not to water the lawns and fill the pools till we get the wells and pumps up and producing clean water.
It is getting that time of the year for parade season and Montrose spruced up Rose Float will be on the road again.
This leads to Montrose Family Fun Days with the trek up the Antenna Trail for a free breakfast if you complete the hike sponsored by Area A Director Ali Grieve.
The breakfast being cooked is funded by Kootenay Savings with proceeds going to KidsSport. The rest of the sponsors are as follows CBT, Columbia Power, Fortis and Teck.
A new thing in conjunction with CBT’s Water Smart Initiative and the Fruitvale Water Board, we are a hiring a water ambassador who will be doing soil analysis, sprinkler checks and more in the name of water conservation.
There will be more news on this program to follow in the newsletter.
Along this line just a reminder lawn and garden sprinkling regulations are in effect all year round.
I want to end this column by thanking the Trail Times and former editor Tracy Gilchrist for coming up with the idea and good luck to the new editor Guy Bertrand in keeping it going until the appropriate time to end it before municipal election campaigns start.
Griff Welsh is the mayor of Montrose. A politician from Trail will write next week.