Come August there will be a new contractor taking over highway maintenance in the area.
    Carillion Canada will be taking over highway maintenance from Ledcor come August 1, 2012 in the Hanna district. This is comprised of Contract Maintenance Area 20, 21 and 22. This area encompasses approximately from Highway 21, east to the Saskatchewan border. It includes areas slightly north of Stettler and Provost, and south to roughly the Red Deer River.
    Carillion established itself in Canada in 1955 and was known as the George Wimpey Company, operating as a general contractor. It grew through the ages and for a short spell was known as Tarmac. It adopted the name Carillion in 1999.
    It is the largest provider of road management in Ontario and acts as the largest roads management service in Western Canada, and are headquartered in Sherwood Park.
    Tony Chelick, operations manager for Alberta Transportation in the Hanna office said the new contractor was selected though a competitive bid process and this was the first 10-year contract in the province. This, however, will soon be the norm.
    “A 10 year contract term was chosen to better allow the successful contractors to capture their initial and ongoing capital costs within the term of the contract.  Also, a longer term should allow for more stability for their contract employees,” said Chelick.  “Any resultant savings may then be reflected in the bid unit prices.”

Golden Hills School Division has selected the site for a possible school in the East Wheatland area.
    The site, near the intersection of Highways 561 and 840, came out of discussions last Monday, March 19, with stakeholders at a public meeting. Golden Hills Superintendent Bevan Daverne said it was a good process.
    “I think it was the only way to work through to something. The site the working group arrived on would have been no one’s first choice. I’m not sure if it would have been anyone’s second choice or even third choice,” said Daverne. “But when they looked at the situation and the available options, it was the choice community members said they could work with.”
    He said, not only was the location important but the perception was of it being a central location.
    “What it came down to was that it is something everyone could work with… they had felt, based on survey data, having a community school that could be shared by all four communities, if that is the goal in mind, they felt as a group something outside a community should be something they should look at,” said Daverne.
    He said of the community members in attendance last Monday, about 79 per cent supported a consolidated school at that site. Of the parents there was 80 per cent support.
    He said the Golden Hills School Division board met on Tuesday to decide whether the board would include it in its capital plan. The results of the meeting were not known at press time.
    Daverne praises the community members who took part in the research.
    “The group was excellent to work with, we couldn’t have had a better situation that way,” said Daverne. “This is such a difficult problem. It is a large area and four schools all going through declining enrolment, and all the emotions that go with the idea of ‘what if we don’t have a school in our community?’  And the idea of where is the best place to consolidate if we are going to have that.”