One County resident has had enough of the state of County Road 49 in Prince Edward County and has a proposed solution.
Wellington resident Aleksa Kaye made a deputation at the Committee of the Whole meeting at Shire Hall on Thursday afternoon.
She called the road an embarrassment, having won the title of CAA’s Worst Road in 2016 and has been on the list for seven years running. She says it is dangerous and the costs to repair the 22 km stretch of roadway are only increasing.
Kaye says a split of the costs between the three levels of government is key to getting this key artery repaired, in and out of the County.
She says if the seven kilometre stretch between Fish Lake Road to the Skyway Bridge would cost approximately $7 million and if that were to be split between the three levels of government it would be more appealing, not only because of the lower cost to all levels of government, but it would be a portion of the road instead of the entire 22 kms.
Mayor Steve Ferguson thanked Kaye for her presentation and said she wasn’t telling councillors something they didn’t already know.
He told those in the council chamber there is a meeting in the works with Minister of Transportation and Minister of Francophone Affairs Caroline Mulroney for April to talk more specifically about County Road 49.
Former councillor Kevin Gale spoke and said this council has a great opportunity.
Ferguson said it is not lost on any of them that this is an expensive road to deal with and they are going to keep chipping away at it with the province.
Council authorized staff at the meeting to issue a Request for Proposal (RPF) for consulting engineering services to complete surveys, detailed design and a construction phasing plan for the rehabilitation of County Road 49.
Peter Moyer, Director of Development Services told council a comprehensive design would allow them to jump from one construction season to the next and determine where it makes the most sense to phase things in and create a multi-phase/multi-year plan.
Councillor Ernie Margetson wasn’t comfortable with the $300,000 – $400,000 price tag that accompanied the report.
Moyer said it is currently just a placeholder as they won’t know how much the design or plan will cost until the RFPs come back to the municipality.
Ferguson reiterated that in the coming weeks he is hoping to go to the province, hat in hand, to fund part or all of the rehabilitation and Prince Edward County would be much stronger and in a slightly better position if they’ve undertaken this study.
Councillor Phil St. Jean agreed they need to start moving this forward and have to lay down some plans and make progress.
Council approved the report.
