dubeauDeadlines to get street lines painted didn’t go over well with city council on Monday night.

Ward 5 Councillor Rick Dubeau says there were a number of presentations that displayed exactly why things are they way are, and while Mayor Steve Black wasn’t completely off the mark with his idea, Dubeau says June 1st is simply impossible.

Director of Public Works Luc Duval’s presentation highlighted multiple conditions are required before staff can go out and paint.

  • Street sweeping on the Connecting Link has to be done before any line painting can take place
  • Asphalt temperature must be at 10 degrees Celsius and rising as this ensures best paint adhesion and reasonable drying time
  • Completely dry highway
  • No forecast of rain for the day
  • No overcast sky

Duval also mentioned that the budget itself is small, and painting in less than ideal conditions would result in doing the work over again, resulting in higher costs.

The city budgets around $100,000 a year for all line painting, and in the last four years, the actual costs has been between $80,000 and $100,000.

Dubeau mentioned in a phone interview that in the midst of a core services review, KPMG’s Oscar Poloni said low morale could lead to more money spent on things like wages, employee turnover and training.

This deadline, Dubeau adds, would be “unfair to our employees.”

“I understand he has his views, and we respect that,” he said, “But when council votes on something, he’s supposed to support what council says.”

Council voted unanimously to disregard the legislation as written.  This would have made the June 1st deadline for the Connecting Link and highways, while June 15th would be for other popular roads in town.

The telling stat was the start dates for line painting in the last few years.

  • 2012: June 18th
  • 2013: June 5th
  • 2014: June 10th
  • 2015: June 25th

The late start date in 2015 was contributed to the new equipment arriving late to the city.