As a paper carrier for the Airdrie City View newspaper, I had early access to the paper on February 22 and saw the front page article ‘The FortisAlberta Big Springs Cable Replacement’.
Also, being a resident who had the honour of being part of the destruction I was immediately brought to anger. Thankfully I had 4 hours of delivery to walk off the disappointment and anger, but also had plenty of time to formulate a letter in my head for Fortis and the City of Airdrie and this one.
It’s not the community of Big Springs at all, it was two streets that were upgraded. Not sure how they figure out power outages, as I have never been late for work because my clock radio failed (yes I still use a clock radio!) The reference to the Utility right-of-way (URW), of course we understand that but seriously if we had been a high end community you can bet that the road way would have used instead of residential ground. When the project was first proposed 3 years ago, it was stated that the project would be done by directional drilling. I thought trees were important for uptake of CARBON? So we don’t care about climate change any more?
Referring to the URW, the 40 year old trees were not planted by the current residents. They bought these homes because of the beauty these trees brought to their properties. The trees were chopped down even before the trenches knew if they would run into roots. And in many cases there were no roots in the way.
No where in the article does it mention that in the 6-8 foot trenches that were filled with 3-4 inch rocks, with a 4-6 inch of loam on top. Where is the standard of what you take out of the ground is what you put back into the ground? NO WAY was rock taken out of my yard. Will my yard sink?
At my personal expense I had to buy loam to fill up my yard, fertilize and water to bring the drying grass back to life, and to water the sod that was replaced in strips throughout, and rebuild the flowerbed that was thrown back together haphazardly.
Surprise, surprise, no other projects are being scheduled according to Sunny Parmar, from FortisAlberta. So other older neighborhoods in Airdrie, ‘You are welcome’, we on the hidden streets of Big Springs Green and part of Big Springs Hill took the destruction for you and were the test project.
This neighborhood should certainly open up a mini golf course as every lot has strips of new sod and would make a perfect golf course, as there are no obstacles left to hit!
And Yes, Councilor Ron Chapman, it was at owners expense that the upgrade line is brought to the panel in the homes. It is my understanding that very few of the residents in the area did this. So, I pray that the splice will last until I move out of here.
So very disappointed that the residents of this project were not invited to the Council meeting where FortisAlberta did their update report. But I know why we weren’t. So very sad.
Phyllis McCallum-Hunter
Airdrie, AB
