Town of Leader council approves river pumphouse upgrade

By Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Your West Central Voice

LEADER – The Town of Leader council approved almost $20,000 in upgrades to the river pumphouse. The resolution was made at the Sept. 15 regular meeting of council.

In a phone call with Your West Central Voice newspaper Oct. 1, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Erin Romaniuk noted that councillors approved an expenditure of $19,366 for variable frequency drives for the river pumphouse.

The CAO stated that the river pumphouse runs on three-phase power, and over the summer there were a few incidents that affected this.

The first incident that occurred involved an eagle striking a power line which subsequently caused some issues for the river pumphouse. Romaniuk noted this incident wasn't as serious.

However, Mother Nature wasn't through with the Town of Leader's pumphouse yet. Romaniuk noted that a second eagle subsequently struck a power line two days later and caused a much more serious issue for the infrastructure.

The CAO noted that variable frequency drives protect the water system when power phases are lost, including easier and more gradual starts and stops. The CAO observed while the drives have substantial price tags, in the long run the investment will pay off for Leader's water supply.

Romaniuk noted the town had some experts look into the eagle incidents, and it doesn't appear anything unusual was occurring other than bad luck. The eagles were simply sitting on a line and ended up striking the wrong one.

Leader council also decided against changing the speed limit inside town boundaries. Romaniuk stated councillors had been pondering lowering the current 40 km/h speed limit inside Leader to 30 km/h.

However, after gathering public input it became clear many members of the public didn't want the speed limit lowered. Councillors decided to leave the speed limit at the current 40 km/h.

Councillors also approved changes to the administration employee and classification policy.

Romaniuk noted this is a policy that includes job descriptions; she stated that the recreation director recently retired and it was thought this would be a good time to update the policy before hiring is done.