Chipman gives go ahead for bridge replacement

BY JOHN MATHER

Chipman will move ahead with reconstruction of the bridge on Range Road 185 north of the village.

Chipman had approached Lamont County earlier this spring, when the cost of repairing the bridge was beyond what the Village could afford in its budget.

Replacement costs are estimated to be $1.8 million.

The Village had applied for a Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP) grant to help offset the costs of the reconstruction, but they also asked Lamont County to financially support the project.

Masking requirement ended at health facilities across the province

BY JANA SEMENIUK

Continuous masking is no longer required at any Alberta Health Services facility as of June 19, according to a press release issued June 15.

The release stated the rescinding of the mask mandate applies to all patients, families and visitors as well as contracted staff, physicians, midwives, students and volunteers.

AHS said the decision was based on several fac- tors including declining COVID-19 cases, testing positivity rate, wastewater data, and hospital admission rates for respiratory illnesses across the province.

“(We’ve also consulted) stakeholders including patients, families, advisory councils, clinicians and frontline managers,” said the release.

Although masks are no longer required, appropriate types of masks and PPE (personal pro- tective equipment) will still be available for people to wear if they want.

AHS also encourages visitors or designated family support persons who have had respiratory symptoms to wait to visit loved ones until 10 days after symptom onset, and all visitors and support persons are recommended to mask when visiting symptomatic patients or residents.

Lamont County officials set up some traffic studies in the area around the bridge and found that much of the traffic using the bridge was from County residents and farmers hauling equipment to their fields travelling over it.

Chipman was approved for the 75 per cent funding through the STIP program, Chipman council was told last week.

That would be $1.2 million.

Lamont County has agreed to contribute $360,000, leaving Chipman to cover the unfunded $90,000 for the project.

Chipman council was told the engineers would hold a “kick-off” meeting with the Village July 10 to get going on the replacement.

The estimated time for completion of the project is September.

Chipman councillors were told the agreement with Alberta Transportation and the Village was structured to allow funds to be advanced to the Village so they aren’t paying all the bills as they come in on their own.

The Chipman administrator told council the province approved the funding fairly quickly.

“And I think that was because the county is also very dependent on that road.”

She added the engineers feel closure of the road while the replacement is underway is the best way to proceed with traffic being diverted to Range Road 190 for about a month.

She told council the work would take approximately 50 days.

Council then passed a motion to proceed with engineering work and get the project to replace the bridge underway.