Clearwater council members found out about a nice present from the provincial government during their meeting last Tuesday evening.

A letter from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure advised that the Ministry is prepared to provide road and bridge maintenance from the date of incorporation until Sept. 21, 2013 – almost six years.

This compares with just five years of road maintenance by the ministry that was used in the study on the financial implications of incorporation.

How long the new municipality would go before it had to pick up the cost of road maintenance was discussed prior to incorporation but an exact figure was not included in the Letters Patent or otherwise written down, said District of Clearwater chief administrative officer Isabell Hadford.

She was unsure about why the maintenance period was longer but speculated the new date might coincide with the end of the Ministry’s maintenance contract with Argo.

With close to 60 km of roads and three bridges, the Ministry estimates the current cost of maintenance within the District of Clearwater at $242,000 per year. The maximum total value of the Ministry’s offer therefore is about $1.4 million.

The Ministry also is offering to partially maintain the Clearwater Station Bridge on Dunn Lake Road until the existing bridge is replaced.

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The potential burden on Clearwater’s small tax base of maintaining the old structure has been a concern to the new municipality.

MOT will be responsible for all inspections and for structural steel repairs and timber substructure repairs. The District will be responsible for normal maintenance, such as snow removal, sidewalk clearing and all timber superstructure components such as deck planks, sidewalk planks and fence rail system.

The provincial ministry will retain jurisdiction over Yellowhead Highway 5 and Clearwater Valley Road from its intersection with Highway 5 to the municipal boundary as well as Clearwater Station Bridge.

The offer from the Ministry is contingent on the District of Clearwater agreeing to re-zone the Brookfield Creek gravel pit to allow quarry operations, including the ability to set up temporary paving and crushing operations and the use of local roads for the transportation of materials. The pit operations also would be exempt from any soil removal or road use levies.

Hadford commented that the municipality would entertain any application to re-zone the gravel operation but that the Ministry has not yet applied