Fill in Those Ditches

Important program for residents in my ward.

Ditch program is back The Journal Pioneer
SUMMERSIDE — With $4 million in requests on the books, money set aside in the city’s budget for ditch infilling won’t make much of a dent the long list of work still to be done, says Summerside’s CAO. The city set aside $372,000 to fill ditches this year. With that, a section of Crozier Drive, in the Lefurgey Subdivision, will have its ditches filled.“Basically, we are continuing to follow the list down,” said Terry Murphy. “There was a commitment made some time ago and there’s a list in here of a lot of ditches to be done and only so much money to go around.” After a year’s hiatus, the ditch infilling program is back. Murphy said there were few complaints about the program’s absence last year, just more residents adding their name to the waiting list. Here’s how the program works. The city receives a petition from an area or street wanting ditches filled. That petition is analyzed by the engineering staff. Safety issues — including ditch depth and water flow — help determine what ditches should top the list. Also, the percentage of residents on that street who’ve asked for ditches to be filled and who’s willing to contribute to the cost, help in determining what ditches top the list. “It’s a 10 per cent cost to the property owner,” said Murphy. On average, residents have to spend $1,000 to have their ditch filled, said finance director Malcolm Millar. Millar said the city did have a program in place at one time where residents could fill ditches at their own expense and be reimbursed up to 50 per cent by the city. “There was very little uptake on that program,” he added. “If you have a very difficult ditch to fill init becomes more dollars per street frontage than an easier ditch.”Murphy admitted it would take years and millions to fill Summerside’s ditches.“We have a long way to go. It’s not something that is going to be done tomorrow,” said Murphy. “The issue is we have to find ways of finding more revenues. There’s only so much revenue to go around and do we put it into this or do we put it into streets? This deals with an individual’s property and streets deal with city travellers as a whole.”