Council not considering storm sewers in King City for now
By Bill Rea

Township staff had concluded there would be too many complications with installing storm sewers in some of the roads in King City. But King councillors recently opted to refer the matter to the 2007 budget deliberations.

The staff report to council stated there had been a petition in May to have the storm sewers installed on several of the local roads with rural road cross sections, and many of the signers were on roads slated to get sanitary sewers, to be hooked up to the YorkDurham Sewage System (YDSS).

The residents had been given an update of the YDSS progress in March, in which they were advised that "there are no plans to eliminate ditches and install curb and gutters in areas serviced with a rural residential cross section."

The report stated the sanitary sewers have been installed on a number of streets identified in the petition, which were being readied for paving. The engineers and contractor for the project had been consulted about the possibility of adding in storm sewer installation. Staff warned the design and approval of that would delay the completion of the road reconstruction and paving, which would create contractual complications.

"New storm sewers would not be deep enough to service foundations by gravity as there is no current 'outfall' deep enough," the staff report stated. "For this reason, homeowners would have to rely on their existing basement sump pumps to deliver water to the sewers."

The report added these shallow sewers would cost about $1.4 million and would serve approximately 150 homes.

Staff advised council not to have them installed, but that wasn't good enough for some of the impacted residents.

Elizabeth Grove resident Nick Cucakovich stressed the need to do things right the first time, arguing that was not what was happening here. He stated half the village has storm sewers, and the rest of the homes will soon have sanitary sewers and brand new ditches.

He added that ditches have traditionally never been maintained. "We always have standing water," he charged, adding the ditches will provide breeding areas from mosquitoes and black flies, while the culverts will offer shelter to raccoons and skunks. He also pointed out West Nile virus is a concern where there is standing water outside homes.

Given the current construction, Cucakovich argued it would have been appropriate to install the storm sewers too.

Director of Operations Jody LaPlante explained when design work on the sanitary sewers started, there was a strong desire among King City residents to maintain the rural nature of the community, thus the desire to maintain the ditches. He added planned improvements to the ditches will get rid of the standing water.

LaPlante also said the contract for the ditch improvements has been let. He added that to change the program now would carry a financial penalty for the municipality.

Councillor Steve Pellegrini agreed these are completely different projects, although he said it would have been nice had they been conducted concurrently.

He also wondered if funding might be available under the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (COMRIF), pointing out the Township successfully obtained a grant for culverts. "It's roughly the same price," he said.

He added there have been a lot of petitions, and anyone who had tried to cut grass in a ditch would be likely to sign. Pellegrini also didn't want to see children playing in places like a ditch.

But LaPlante had bad news for him, saying storm sewers are not covered in any COMRIF criteria.

Councillor Peter Grandilli said this should be discussed for Nobleton too. He said he's always been told it's best to wait and carry out projects together.

Mayor Margaret Black lamented that they didn't know about the demand for storm sewers before, pointing out there had been a lot of calls against having urban designs in the village. The work could have been done at a lower price. But the mayor did put

forth the suggestion of considering it at next year's budget.

Councillor Bill Cober agreed. "It's a good discussion that will take place at the time," he remarked.