Launch points

Council approves two of four suggested Millennium Trail launch points

At last Tuesday’s meeting, council approved two launch points for the Millennium Trail, and chose to scrap two. Approved were the Consceon launch point on Salem Road, and the Hillier launch point on Station Road. The Lake Street launch point in Picton and Stanley Street launch point in Bloomfield were removed.

The gravel launch points are to be constructed within the existing trail property boundaries. The launch points would provide a location for trail users to park their vehicles, access the trail, use as a rest area and provide basic amenities such as washrooms and garbage disposal. The Trail Ad- Hoc Committee is proposing the development of four launch points. In order to provide convenient access points to the trail, the locations have been selected to be evenly distributed along the entire length of the trail. A launch point already exists in Wellington at the north end of West Street and the proposed launch points were modelled around this existing location. There has been worry surrounding the Lake Street and Stanley Street launch points since they were pitched earlier this summer. In July, council, sitting as Committee of the Whole, sent the two launch points back to staff for further review. Staff continued to support the locations identified in the earlier report for various reasons including site feasibility, accessibility availability, public safety, capital budget implications, existing infrastructure and connection to downtowns and hamlets.

Councillor Jamie Forrester was still adamant that the Lake Street location was not in the best interest for public safety, noting if approved, the County would have to live with the consequences for a long time. “I’m telling you right now, whether you want to listen or not, if we put this plan in place we will have a disaster on this corner,” he said. Forrester noted that increased traffic in the summer, including large travel trailers, can quickly cripple the main intersection in Picton.

Councillor Phil St. Jean agreed with Forrester’s concerns, saying public safety outweighs the need for parking spots. “As a person who lives on Stanley Street, less than 300 feet away from where this launch point will be, I do not agree with a parking lot being developed in that location,” said St. Jean. “I lived it all summer long. To add one more point of intersection that will become a traffic magnet I feel is inappropriate.” St. Jean was also troubled that a traffic study on the two troublesome locations wasn’t initiated.

Councillor John Hirsch was one of the few that didn’t see a traffic issue. “I don’t understand the traffic concern. I don’t see that more people are going to come to these locations than arrive now. And it seems to be we currently have parking on roadsides, which is inherently unsafe. To me it’s better to put them in a properly designed parking lot,” said Hirsch, who went on to note that the trail committee has shown an ability to raise funds and they have promised to raise the additional funds needed for the capital construction.

Questions also arose around the cost of washrooms and garbage disposal at the sites. Councillor Stewart Bailey believed the budget of just under $4,000 for the Lake Street location was naive. “I’ve had concern about the Lake Street location, and one of them has been with maintenance. I worked in that location for three years and if we put up a toilet or any type of garbage collection system in that area, it’s going to have to be cleaned out daily. I can guarantee it,” said Bailey, noting that costs will be significantly more at the expense of the taxpayer. Director of Operations Adam Goheen appreciated the comments, but didn’t think it would add to the existing budget. “We would anticipate this would be a well used site, but it is part of our daily and sometimes multiple times per day pickup. We would have to adapt. The alternative is people would litter and that isn’t ideal either,” said Goheen.

Councillor Bill Roberts told his colleagues that council had put this into the hands of experts, and they had given their opinions. “The experts that we asked to do the job, which is the ad hoc committee and staff, were pretty much unanimous. They reviewed alternative locations available for the development of launch points, and they came to the conclusion that this is the best option going forward to move on and get on with the project,” said Roberts. Councillor Forrester thought the experts needed to do more homework. “Maybe our experts know, but maybe they should spend a few more hours sitting on the corner,” said Forrester.

Mayor Steve Ferguson also worried specifically about Lake Street, saying he spent many hours on the street this summer watching the issues. “During the summer for years that access road leading eventually to Sandbanks just gets jammed with trailers and they pull into that area. They pull up along the curb and I just think this is an accident waiting to happen. I have a great deal of difficulty with the way this is laid out supporting Lake Street. And I understand the problems with Stanley Street. They are going to provide problems and it’s my belief they need to be rethought,” said Ferguson.

CAO Marcia Wallace told council it was time to decide what the end goal was for the launch points.

“I think the question for council is do you see a trailhead there at that site at all, or not at all. And if it’s no, then it can be taken off. If it is yes, then we certainly can take this conversation to reconfigure the design and how existing parking and new parking and the placement of the pieces would fit with the plans we are contemplating from an engineering perspective.”

Councillor St. Jean put forth an amending motion to remove Lake Street and Stanley Street, leaving only two launch points.