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Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Issue 43
SERVING THE ENERGY CITY SINCE 1903
www.estevanmercury.ca
Mailing No. 10769 | Publication No. 40069240
Public works ready for snow and spring By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
A Day of Kindness Estevan Kinette Club members Susan Colbow, left, and Chelsey Istace presented roses to Blossom Carter at the St. Joseph’s Hospital’s long-term care on Feb. 25 as part of the Day of Kindness. The Kinettes made a number of stops across the city as part of their third annual Day of Kindness, performing assorted good deeds on behalf of the residents of Estevan. See the full story on page A16. Photo by Sam Macdonald
Collision leads to drug charges A two-vehicle collision resulted in the arrest of two men on drugrelated charges. Members of the Estevan Police Service (EPS) were called to the parking lot of a northeast business during the Feb. 21 day shift. Inspector Murray Cowan said an investigation into the collision resulted in the drug charges against one of the people in the offending vehicle. Cowan claimed this is a fairly unique situation. “As things rolled out, police determined this person was trafficking, and in possession of a significant quantity of marijuana and a little bit of methamphetamines,” said Cowan. Joshua Roy Adams, a 24-yearold man from Corning, is facing
several charges under the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, including driving while impaired by drug, public mischief by misleading a police officer and possession of property obtained by crime. Cowan didn’t disclose the drug that Adams was allegedly impaired by. As the investigation continued, further charges were laid against Adams for possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking in marijuana. The vehicle has also been seized as offence-related property. The street value of the marijuana
and methamphetamines is estimated at $3,000. Adams was not driving the vehicle when it was involved in the accident in the parking lot of the business. However, he did drive the vehicle after the collision, and that’s when police arrested him for allegedly driving while impaired by drug. An investigation is ongoing. Adams was released from court the following day on strict conditions, and will appear in court again on April 10. A Kipling man has been charged with public mischief in connection with the accident, also for misleading a police officer, and will appear in court on April 17.
The warm temperatures in mid-to-late February led the City of Estevan’s public works department to shift its attention from winter duties to early spring tasks. Norm Mack, the manager of the public works roads and drainage division, said they have started to fill potholes using cold mix. But the cold mix is only a stopgap solution, because if water runs on the cold mix, or if it rains or snows, then the cold mix will be dislodged. “Right now there are very few potholes, but as the weather progresses, there will be more,” Mack said in an interview with the Mercury. The city likely won’t be able to apply hot mix until midway through the spring. The contractor’s hot mix plant usually fires up in May. The intersection of Perkins Street and Souris Avenue South is one area Mack cited that currently has issues with potholes. “It’s always been a problem area, but the rest of the city looks pretty darn good right now,” said Mack. “As the weather warms up a bit more, you’ll see the problems. But the day they appear, we’ll have people out cold mixing them or temporarily patching them.” Mack predicted the city’s snow removal strategy should reduce the number of potholes in the city in the spring, and save the city thousands of dollars. “My way of thinking is that snow removal is not only a way of getting the snow off the streets, but we’re thinking ahead about drainage issues, and the third issue is it’s just better maintenance for your pavement,” said Mack. “You don’t have that water laying, because any time you have water laying on pavement, it destroys it.”
Drainage was a concern for the city due to the amount of snow the city received this winter. Crews have been out exposing catch basins in back lanes and streets, so that they could be prepared for the snow’s melt. They push snow on back alleys once a week throughout the winter, but the accumulation of the snow built a snow pack more than a foot high in some parts. Mack said public works knew there would be ruts when the weather warmed up. “It has been a slow melt, but ... we’re mindful that winter isn’t over yet. So we haven’t put away the snow removal equipment yet, because anything can happen,” said Mack. The temperatures seen in the last few weeks of February were ideal for melting some of the snow. “I think we expected more water flow, but there wasn’t a whole bunch of frost in the ground, and I feel a lot of this water that could have been running over ground soaked into the ground,” said Mack. If Estevan would have experienced a minimal amount of snow melting, and then had a 20 C day in March, then there would have been problems with drainage, he said. City crews are ready if there is another storm, Mack said. The last storm in early February dropped about 17 centimeters of snow on the city. They were able to clear the snow without spending much money on overtime, or contracted labour or equipment. They also didn’t have to clear the snow from the Priority 3 streets. Mack said the snow clearing efforts from February’s storm won’t be as expensive as the snowstorms in late November and in December. “We went from snow removal to drainage almost overnight,” said Mack.
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