Contractors working Tuesday on Sackville’s well #1 inside its little red pump house — a familiar sight to hikers, snowshoers and skiers who use the Ogden Loop trails off Walker Rd. A note on a wall inside the pump house indicates the well was 380′ deep in 2009

At its regular meeting next month, Tantramar council will be asked to approve buying a new pump for one of the three deep wells that provide water to the former town of Sackville.

“One of those wells had a pump that failed on us recently,” Town Engineer Jon Eppell told council at its committee of the whole meeting on Monday.

“We’ve had to install a temporary pump as a stopgap that we’ve rented and we’re seeking approval from council to go out and purchase a replacement pump.”

Eppell said installing a new pump next summer as well as renting a temporary one in the meantime would cost an estimated $42,411.60 plus HST.

He added it might be possible to refurbish the existing pump which could be used as a backup.

He said the town plans to replace the little red huts at wells 1 and 2 which would make installation of the new pump easier and less expensive.

Plant that treats the water piped in from the 3 wells. One of the large open reservoirs is off to the right

Sackville no longer draws from large open reservoirs, one of which is near the water treatment plant, but depends on the two wells that date from the early 1980s as well as a third opened in 2015.

Sackville’s water system includes the highly-visible tower located just off Hesler Drive that cost $4 million and was officially opened in November 2010. It has a 550,000 gallon capacity.

To read Jon Eppell’s full report on the pump replacement, click here.

Flood project nearly complete

In his engineering report and later during the public question period, Eppell gave council an update on the final phase of the $13.8 million Lorne Street flood control project.

He said the tricky operation to drive drainage pipes under the CN rail line has been put off until April when the ground is no longer frozen.

When that operation is complete, all three of the flood ponds including the one in the old quarry and a second south of St. James St. will flow into the newly completed Pond 3 behind the community gardens on Charles Street.

Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne

That third pond is already connected through a series of ditches and culverts to an existing aboiteau in the dyke beside Sackville’s downtown sewage lagoons so that water can be discharged through it at low tide into the Tantramar River.

Town CAO Jennifer Borne said talks are ongoing with the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure over installation of a new, double-gated aboiteau equipped to drain water faster and to handle higher volumes after intense storms.

The province had committed $2.4 million to building the aboiteau, but in November, the lowest construction bid came in higher than expected putting the project $790,000 over budget.

Eppell says that the project may have to be finished in stages depending on how willing the province is to fund it.

For more, including an earlier overview of the flood control project, click here.