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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 4, 20 21 | 10 oakville.ca Hydro Line Clearing Tree pruning near hydro lines begins this January in south central Oakville (zone 3) from Chartwell Road to Fourth Line and Westdale Road, and from QEW to Lake Ontario. The town's professional contractor will prune trees on behalf of Oakville Hydro to ensure safe clearance around hydro lines, poles and guy lines to minimize safety hazards and power outages. Trees are pruned to the Electrical Safety Authority's (ESA) industry standard of providing a minimum three metre (10- foot) clearance around primary lines and a one-metre (three-foot) clearance around secondary lines. In rare instances, trees growing too close to hydro lines may require removal when the clearance standard cannot be achieved using acceptable pruning practices. In some situations, the town must prune or remove privately owned trees if they are growing too close to hydro lines. In cases where hydro lines are located in rear yards, Oakville Hydro has an easement through the property which allows the arborist to access the tree. For more information visit oakvillehydro.com or oakville.ca or contact ServiceOakville at 905-845-6601. Staff with the Halton District School Board are trying hard to find an alternate location for a new north Oakville high school after it was determined radio towers would make the proposed site unusable. In a press release issued Wednesday, Feb. 24, the board an- nounced the cancellation of plans to build a three-storey public sec- ondary school at 1039 Dundas St., W., just west of the Dundas Street and Neyagawa Boulevard inter- section. They noted that during a re- cent board meeting, new infor- mation was presented that identi- fied significant concerns about an AM radio tower array located to the west of the site. Staff said the school would be in the direct path of the radio waves emitted by this tower. They also said that a study commissioned by the board had found that, while the school would be outside the area of di- rect potential health impacts as defined by federal regulations, the radio waves could potentially impact electronic devices, in- cluding life-saving and personal medical devices; operational school equipment for learning and communications; and per- sonal electrical devices. The board's consultant said there are no building material or design solutions that would effec- tively resolve this situation. Stuart Miller, the board's di- rector of education, said getting the radio array moved was also not a feasible option. He said such a course of action would probably take years, given there are six radio towers, the ar- ray is privately owned and is li- censed by the federal govern- ment. After extensive discussions, trustees directed board staff to work with the Town of Oakville and other municipal agencies to identify alternate options for the location of the high school within northeast Oakville. "We will continue to work dili- gently toward a solution, as the need for a secondary school in North Oakville is an uppermost priority," says Miller. "This new high school was planned to open in the 2024-25 school year and, therefore, we need to identify a new site and be- gin construction as soon as pos- sible." During a Jan. 18 meeting of town council, at which the need for the north Oakville high school was discussed, urban planner Natalie Hickey said that, as of October 2020, there were 734 secondary students living in Oak- ville, north of Dundas Street, who have to attend schools south of Dundas Street. The province announced in July 2020 that it will invest $33.6 million to build the school. Miller said board staff are now looking at a site in the area of Tra- falgar Road, north of Dundas Street. The proposal for the 1039 Dun- das St., W. site was to build an 82,575 square-foot school build- ing with 60 classrooms, 141 park- ing spaces, six accessible parking spaces and 46 bicycle parking spaces. The school would be large enough for 1,200 students; howev- er, at the time, board staff said the 4.88-hectare property could ac- commodate as many as 12 porta- bles for additional students, should the need arise. Miller said he believes the school design will stay roughly the same at the new location. He declined to say whether the board can realistically get this school built and opened by the 2024-25 school year, noting only that this is now a "tighter" time- line to achieve. RADIO TOWERS FORCE OFFICIALS TO LOOK FOR NEW HIGH SCHOOL SITE DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com NEWS BOARD NOW LOOKING AT SITE IN TRAFALGAR ROAD AREA, NORTH OF DUNDAS STREET Plans for the new north Oakville secondary school, which had been proposed for 1039 Dundas St. W. HDSB photo