Town paving plan includes arena parking lot
$1 million in paving in 2024
April 8, 2024, 10:59 am
Kevin Weedmark
The town of Moosomin will spend $1 million on paving in 2024, including paving the parking lot at Mike Schwean Arena.
Mayor Larry Tomlinson said he asked for a quote on paving the arena parking lot just to see how much it would be, but the quote came in low enough that the arena lot will be included in the paving program.
“I think it’s just awesome that we’re able to do that,” he said. “I threw that in with the other streets when they were here and it was just to see—then when it came in so cheap we decided to do it.
“When I had Ed up here from Southwest Paving we were driving around and I said, ‘Just out of curiosity I’d like you to give me a price on the parking lot at the arena.’ So we did 150 feet south from the current pavement south 250 feet wide, which goes right past the end of the rink a few feet to the south and then out west, past the lights with enough for a driving lane so you can go in and drive around and you’d still be on pavement. He said, ‘I’ll make a price you can’t refuse,’ and he did.”
The cost of paving the arena parking lot will be $99,900.
“He called me and said, ‘You won’t be able to refuse when I do,’ and that is a very good price, but the base work is already done so that’s part of it—it’s just pavement and that’s it.”
Also on the paving list for this year are:
• The 400 block of Moose Street, between the Canalta Hotel and the Best Western, with roll curbing on both sides.
• Ogilvie Street, from Broadway to Henry. The town crew will be doing the base for that section.
• Poplar Street between Broadway and Windover.
• Wright Road from the Bradley Park entrance to Main Street.
Tomlinson says the work will take place this fall.
“They’re not going to be here until September but we’ve got a lot of base work to do on Ogilvie and we’ve got some storm sewers to put in there yet,” he says. “So that’s got to be done first and then we’ve got another block to the north that we have to do some work on. That will all be included in this on Ogilvie and that will take it right out to Broadway.
“When we did the budget last year, Mobile Paving couldn’t come because they went out of business, so we put $500,000 into reserve to put into this year’s paving. So we’re just going to match it this year like we normally would, but I think by the time we’re done—patching isn’t in here yet—but with the patching list I think it will bring it to $985,000 with the paving and the patching. So we’re going to spend $1 million dollars.
“With us putting money into reserve last year and spending it with this year’s, that will pretty well catch us up with what we’ve got going, but we’re trying to do one to two blocks a year, especially for water and sewer, so we’ll carry on after this and do a couple more blocks another year.”
Does he feel like the town is getting ahead?
“We’re getting ahead on some things—but it’s the infrastructure that’s getting us into trouble because we keep digging infrastructure. So we decided to do two blocks a year and try to stay ahead of it a little bit, but as soon as you do infrastructure you’ve got to put a base in and pave it. I don’t suppose we’ll ever get caught up but at least we’re trying to keep up to it and keep the infrastructure in shape plus getting the paving done afterwards.”
