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Town of Castor meeting highlights from April 26th

Coronation RCMP Segreant John Pike presented council as a delegation during the meeting
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By Kevin J. Sabo

For the Advance

The radio tower behind the Town of Castor office has been found to have some problems, council heard during their April 26th meeting.

A load study was conducted on the tower and found that as the structure sits now its legs are overloaded by six per cent, and the tower diagonals are overloaded by 56 per cent.

A local Internet service provider has requested permission to put equipment on the tower, which the council has denied: however, a study was also done accounting for the potential extra equipment, which found that the tower legs would be 22 per cent over stressed if allowed to proceed.

“We can’t leave the tower the way it is, now that we know it’s an issue,” said Chief Administrative Officer Christopher Robblee.

The tower is used by police, fire, and emergency medical service radios in the region.

According to Robblee, any equipment that had been on the tower but was not being used has already been taken down to ease weight on the structure.

Options for the structure include completely replacing the tower, with a heavier model, at a significant cost, or reinforcing the legs and cross bars at a significantly less cost.

Council opted for the latter and have directed administration to get costs on the reinforcements, as well as double check that everything unused is off the tower.

Water and gas

The Town of Castor’s water utility ran at a 38 per cent loss for the month ending in March, which is down several per cent from the month ending in February. With the cold weather more or less done for the season, administration is optimistic that the number will continue to come down.

The gas system, on the other hand, has positive news. It is currently running at a 3.7 per cent profit.

RCMP

Coronation RCMP Sgt. John Pike presented to the Town of Castor council as a delegation during the April 26th meeting.

In his presentation, he outlined the focus of the Coronation RCMP detachment for the next year as well as briefly discussing files he and his members have been working on.

“We’re focusing on traffic and property crimes,” said Pike. “I’m trying to get the guys doing more patrols. We’re doing more patrols to catch people in the act or deter them.”

Castor Mayor Richard Elhard agreed that the RCMP have been more visible in town.

“Since you’ve been here, we’re getting a lot more patrols,” said Elhard.

According to Pike, 50 per cent of police files in Castor are related to traffic offences. With fuel prices continuing to climb and people falling onto hard times, thefts of fuel and copper have been skyrocketing in the region, with Pike reporting three thefts of diesel on April 26th alone.

According to Pike, the Province is trying to cut down on copper thefts by requiring people to register their information when turning copper into scrap places, but he noted that not everyone is following the rules.

Still, his members are doing what they can to be visible and deter crime from happening.