In response to and in support of the letter submitted last week titled ‘unsafe sidewalks’, my wife and I would like to also acknowledge the lack of sidewalk maintenance throughout Fergus this past winter. We are ‘walkers’ and decided this winter to try and get out for some physical exercise each and every day. We do appreciate that it has been a relatively harsh, cold and snowy winter this year but we also have to agree that the lack of sidewalk cleaning around town has been lacking. As well as the challenges we have experience walking on ‘bumpy’ ice and slippery sidewalks, we have observed people walking and driving mobility scooters on the roads (including hwy 6) and parents carrying their kids to school, all because the sidewalks were unsafe. As a long time community member and volunteer, I do know that we have an ‘accessibility’ policy in Centre Wellington but our approach to Winter sidewalk maintenance does not seem to support this. I have no idea how anyone with a disability or in a wheelchair would get around town this winter. Even as I right this letter, my wife and I observed a sidewalk snow-plow driving in the road today (and not on the sidewalk) while we continued to walk on ice and slushy sidewalks. This is not the first time we have seen this either. Thanks to Christopher Hopewell for highlighting this in your paper last week and we all hope to see improvement before someone has a serious injury, on the sidewalk or in the main roads.
Ed & Irene O’Shaughnessy