District of Clearwater will take over road maintenance within its boundaries in September, 2013.
To prepare for the transition, town council voted during its Nov. 6 meeting to award a $14,000 contract to Urban Systems to develop a road strategy for the municipality.
According to a report from public works superintendent Jared Brounstein, Urban Systems will create a base map and classification maps show arterial, collector and local roads, bus routes, plus heavy truck routes.
The consultants will prepare draft service levels (for example, the depth of snow on collector roads before plowing is prescribed) for each road maintenance activity. Cost implications for the various service levels will be outlined to held council decide about the trade-offs of service versus cost.
Urban Systems will outline short and medium term road maintenance approaches, explore coordination with neighboring communities, and discuss with council about service level options and the contracting process.
The District also received a somewhat lower bid (at $5,800) from True Consulting to do the same work.
However, Brounstein pointed out that Urban Systems is the municipality's engineer and using them to develop the road strategy would therefore result in greater consistency. The public works superintendent also reported that staff felt Urban Systems has the background and skill level to meet the District's needs.