By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
The RM of Corman Park will look into creating different rates for residential and commercial users in order to address an ongoing problem of excessively long wait times at the municipality’s fill stations, particularly at the north station located west of Warman.
During the November 25 meeting, RM councillors unanimously voted to establish different user groups within the Text2Car fob system that is used to pay for water at the fill stations.
As a result, administration will prepare a report for council with proposed user groups and rate structures. A timeline for that report to return to council was not given.
Council had directed administration back in January to investigate the problem of long wait times at fill stations in response to complaints from ratepayers.
The problem is largely the result of commercial vac trucks with large tank volumes using the fill stations, as they can take up to 30 to 45 minutes. And when several of these trucks are lined up, it can lead to long delays for residential users.
Users access the fill stations using Text2Car, which allows them to load funds online or at the RM office. At the moment, Corman Park places no restrictions on who can register for access through this system.
Project engineer Jessica Williams presented several options for council to consider in response, the first being the construction of a second fill station at the north well specifically for commercial users.
While this would definitely reduce wait times for residential users, Williams noted it would cost in excess of $100,000 to install a new reservoir, pump and hoses, running power, and a fob system. As well, additional land may be required.
The second option would be to increase the pump size at the north fill station, which would increase the flow rate and reduce the fill times.
However, Williams said the RM has used a larger pump in the past and knows from experience that they need to be replaced more often. Also, the effect on wait times would not be significant.
The third option, which was favoured by administration, was to create different rates for different users. Williams said they could create a preferred rate for residential users while potentially generating more revenue from commercial users.
“Commercial users also create more wear on the station, so a higher rate would better reflect the costs,” she said.
The downside of this option is that residents who receive water through a commercial delivery service would likely pay more. Also, users could potentially register with their personal names but then use the fill stations for commercial purposes.
“The only way we’d be able to stop this would be to define volume thresholds for commercial use,” she said. “This would be a manual process to review each account.”
The fourth option proposed by administration would be to designate a specific fill station for commercial users, though this would create increased truck traffic near those stations and some residential users would then have to travel further for water.
Finally, Williams suggested administration could look into restricting commercial users to certain times at the fill stations.
“But Text2Car currently doesn’t support this feature, making enforcement difficult,” she said.
Division 8 Councillor Wendy Trask initially spoke in favour of building a second fill station for commercial users.
Division 7 Councillor Calvin Vaandrager indicated his preference for the varying rates, asking why they would cater to commercial users by building a new station.
“That fill station was built for residents to get water,” he said.
Reeve Joe Hargrave agreed with Vaandrager, noting that it only made sense for commercial users to pay more given that they put more wear on the fill station and cost the RM more money.
Division 6 Councillor Steven Balzer made the recommendation to go with the third option, adding that establishing different rates would be the start of addressing this issue.
“Differentiating the groups would be fantastic, and we could continue on with more deliberation if we need to add more to it,” he said.
Trask suggested they pair the third option with the fifth, adding, “I don’t think we will see the results that we’re looking for with just Option 3.”
However, Balzer rejected the proposed amendment to his motion.