Centre Wellington councillors and staff faced troubled waters, discussing local bridges on Feb. 11.
The Belwood Town Hall meeting, the first of four planned for 2016, was hosted by the Belwood and District Lions Club.
The hall was roughly half full, with chairs set up for 60 audience members.
“I can’t believe it was actually a year ago I was here at the first town hall meeting (during the current council term),” said Mayor Kelly Linton.
“It is really important to hear what the community is thinking.
“I’m not saying I will have all the answers, or staff will have all the answers, but we will do something with the questions asked tonight.
“This is meant to be a casual, interactive, two-way conversation.”
Audience questions
Having lived in the 25th Sideroad of the Belwood area for the past 28 years, Lloyd Bartholomew noted unpaved rural roads have deteriorated considerably.
He had concerns with the way gravel roads are graded, and asked if it would not be more beneficial to the township and residents to pave all the rural roads.
Bartholomew suspected maintenance costs could be considerably less over the long term.
Mayor Kelly Linton said council has struggled with the issue of when it becomes more cost effective to pave a gravel road.
Managing director of infrastructure Colin Baker said “essentially this is a financial issue.” He explained road paving is “extremely costly”.
“Would it reduce some of the maintenance … certainly. Would the maintenance reduction offset the one-time capital cost to pave the road … probably not.”
Baker said the other thing to consider is that most paved roads have a life expectancy of 20 years.
He noted the other issue with older gravel roads is the quality of the base, which could be over bog or organic material underneath which would potentially degrade asphalt even faster.
“Right now the most economical approach is to continue grading gravel roads,” said Baker, who added the department attempts to focus on the trouble spots each year.
Baker said there are provincial minimum maintenance standards which the township must meet.
Harry Hanna from Belwood questioned why the township was spending $1-million on a walking bridge in Elora … when there are numerous closed bridges throughout the township – bridges that residents depend on for their livelihoods.
Hanna contended that even if the Metcalfe street bridge was to be closed, there is another bridge 200 yards down from it (Wellington County Road 7 across the Elora Gorge).
He said Fergus had to deal with one bridge (St. David Street/Highway 6) all summer (while the Tower Street bridge was under construction).
“To me and a lot of other people, it seems every mayor wants to have a statue,” said Hanna.
He claimed Russ Spicer had the Fergus arena and pool.
“Joanne Ross-Zuj tried to put an arena in Bissell Park.
“It’s sad that we’re spending $1-million on a walking bridge – and it has to look good to suit Elora.”
Mayor Linton stressed the walking bridge is not an “instead of” project and is not part of the two per cent capital levy directed at replacing closed bridges in the township.
He said “one of the issues which has come out of left field is the issue of the Metcalfe Street bridge.”
Officially, it is known as the Badley Bridge – “but it is the Metcalfe Street bridge.”
Linton said recent inspections revealed the bridge was in worse shape than anticipated and it will need to be replaced in the next few years.
“That will shut down downtown Elora.”
In the meantime, the new Elora Mill is set to open in 2017.
“This means there is the potential of finally getting the new mill open with any potential economic spinoffs, only to have the main bridge out for an extended period of time.”
Linton stated replacement of the Victoria Street walking bridge had always been in the township’s long-term plans.
He said the reason the work was brought forward was to prevent downtown Elora from dying because there was no access to it.
Hanna argued the bridge across the gorge is not that far to drive.
Linton maintained the lack of access could be devastating – “just when a $45-million dollar project is going in to revitalize downtown Elora.”
“We can make signs (to direct people),” Hanna countered. “When we have bridges shut down and we are spending $1-million for a walking bridge for visitors who don’t even pay taxes … I don’t understand.”
Gerry Ellen asked point blank how many Centre Wellington employees currently make $100,000 per year or more.
Treasurer/chief financial officer Wes Snarr responded those numbers are within the Sunshine List published by the Ontario government each March.
“Why can you not tell us right now?” asked Ellen.
Snarr said last year, there were eight employees.
“How many this year?” Ellen asked.
Snarr said those figures would be available in March.
Ellen wanted to know why he wasn’t getting a straight answer. He said he believes there are too many staff members earning $100,000 or more.
“If they were paid a more realistic wage – we could start rebuilding bridges tomorrow,” said Ellen. He contended there were three bridges in his immediate neighbourhood that have been shut down.
Bartholomew returned to the microphone to state he also had concerns on the timing with which some of the local bridges had been closed.
He assumed some type of inspection is done prior to a bridge closing. “But I think it would be very courteous to inform residents in the immediate areas or put up a sign ahead of time to let people known when a bridge would be closed.”
In his own case, Bartholomew said he had driven to town and upon his return he saw a sign at the end of the street stating the bridge was closed.
Linton said he understood bridges are inspected at different intervals.
However, Linton explained the township does not know in advance what the bridge report will say.
“Once a report says a bridge must be closed, we close it immediately,” said Linton.
Baker added notifications are generally sent to areas immediately near the bridge, but not over a large area. He added notifications are posted on the township website and News releases are issued to inform the larger community.
Bake did agree it is something to keep in mind, and in the future more effort will be taken to inform residents in the area of when bridges are closed.
“It would be nice to have a couple of days’ notice,” Bartholomew said.
Baker said once the township is informed a bridge is to close, signage to that effect is put up as soon as possible.
He was however pleased to see a number of closed bridges are up for replacement.
Referring to the Sunshine List of employees, Hanna asked why so many Wellington County employees are on that list.
He noticed a recent ad offering $50,000 – for a clerk.
“I was always told that if you paid good money, you get good people … well, our infrastructure is falling apart,” said Hanna.
Linton said “municipalities do pay to keep good people on staff. If we reduced our salaries by 50 per cent … we’d lose those good people (to other municipalities).”
The mayor added the infrastructure is not falling apart because of what staff is paid, “the infrastructure is falling apart because we have bridges built in 1920.”
