Property owners within area of Woolwich Township Drain No. 1 to each pay $275

OWNERS OF PROPERTY WITHIN A large swatch of land west of Maryhill now have a spanking new engineering report outlining how the area drains, and they’ll each pay $275 for it.

That tab reflects a per-property share of the $37,125 Woolwich Township paid to R.J. Burnside and Associates to prepare new maintenance assessment schedule for what’s known as Woolwich

Township Drain No. 1. It’s the first time the information about the drainage of some 5,100 acres has been updated in more than a century.

The 125 property owners are each responsible for an equal share of the cost of the study, with the township on the hook for $2,750 given that the area is home to municipal roads such as Hopewell Creek Road, St. Charles Street, Shantz Station Road and Crowsfoot Road.

The new schedule, which also apportions the percentage to be paid by each property owner as a share of future maintenance costs, was approved by councillors meeting last week.

Coun. Patrick Merlihan asked why it is that everyone is paying the same flat rate for the current survey, while future maintenance costs would be based on size of the benefitting property. Some of the future benefits amounted to 11 cents he pointed out.

Paul MacIntyre of R.J. Burnside and Associates, responded that the updated report is of equal benefit to everyone in the catchment area.

“I think it was fair in how I did that,” he said of the division of costs.

The engineer’s report will allow staff to bill out current maintenance work performed on the drain as well as any maintenance work that will occur in the future, said a report prepared by deputy clerk Jeff Smith.

Burnside’s work updated a drainage report written in 1917. Since that time, there have been severances of properties and subsequent subdivisions of land.

“Further, conditions have changed, and circumstances have arisen with respect to ownerships and land use; all of which justify a variation of the schedules of assessment for maintenance and repair,” MacIntyre said in his report.