Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

The town is having Rennie Hall Plaza re-done – as anyone who has visited downtown Slave Lake in the past 12 months or so knows. The question before council on July 12 was whether to spend a couple hundred grand more to re-do the sidewalk across Main St. to make it match the new design on the west side.

Council had indicated support for the idea at an earlier meeting.

Now it was time to talk turkey.

There is money in the budget, council heard, to do the east side job up to the crosswalk in front of the Rex Theatre. If the 10 per cent contingency in the budget is unspent, the work could be continued all the way up to 4th Ave. NE.

That was mayor Tyler Warman’s preference, as expressed back in May. He was still keen on it in July.
“Why don’t we do it all at once?” he asked.

It would mean spending the money before it’s known whether the project’s budget can cover it, but that was a risk council was willing to take. Warman’s motion to extend the scope of the project to include the whole sidewalk on the east side of Main St., from 3rd Ave. to 4th Ave. NE.

Council was assured no sub-surface complications are expected on the east side work (such as have been holding up the work on the west side). So it should go fairly quickly. Warman urged administration to reach out to business owners soon, so they know what’s coming.

The total project cost is expected to be $1.03 million.

Council heard that the aim is to get the west side work completed in time for the All-In Slave Lake festival, which is scheduled to take place in the downtown are on the last weekend of August. The east side work would commence after that.