MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has instructed administration to bring forward proposed changes to the municipality’s gravel sales policy, including the possibility of ending private sales from county pits.
The move came by way of motion at a recent regularly-scheduled council meeting.
The current policy (#4025) for gravel sales from county-owned pits or pits under lease agreement with the county allows for annual gravel sales per county ratepayer and/or resident of 100 cubic yards of crush, 300 cubic yards of pit run, and 450 yards of screenings.
A gravel permit must be issued and signed by an approved county authority before gravel can be sold and removed from a county gravel pit.
Reeve Bruce Beattie said council is considering ending gravel sales from county pits to help ensure that enough gravel is available for future county needs.
“We’ve talked about this for a number of years because we have concerns about the long-term capability of us to meet our needs for the municipality from our gravel supplies, particularly the eastern part of the county,” said Beattie.
“Council has to consider long-term. Many years into the future we will still be needing gravel so we want to make sure that we maintain as much supply as we can.”
As well, the county does not want to compete with private gravel providers in the district, he said.
“We have tried to set our prices so we wouldn’t compete with the private gravel pits because we don’t want to be in competition with enterprise,” he said. “That has not always been totally successful, so by eliminating the sales of crush and pit run we will eliminate that issue.”
Asked if the county has received complaints from private pit owners regarding the matter, he said, “We have in past, over the last few years, private pits have been concerned. We have introduced a lot of new requirements for pits in terms of permitting and hours of operation and those types of things so we want to make sure that we are not competing with them.”
The county sold 12,000 tonnes of gravel in 2019 and so far in 2020 about 20,000 tonnes. The 2019 sales brought in $130,000 before expenses, he said.
During the Oct. 28 council meeting, councillors discussed the matter of gravel sales as part of a review of existing policies and procedures.
Councillors passed a motion calling on administration to come back with proposed changes to the existing gravel policy.
Specifically, administration has been directed to revamp the policy to include only waste product (screenings) sales.
Screenings are used in the maintenance of feedlots in the district, he said.
A bylaw change would be needed to change the policy, he noted.
“Once that goes through then our proposal is to eliminate the sale of crush and pit run to residents and leave that to the private sector,” he said.
