Looping road

Should Union Road be closed to through traffic? The fate of a half-kilometre connecting road between County Road 2 and Highway 62 is once again contorting council into illogical knots.

The issues are, however, pretty straightforward. The road is crumbling. It doesn’t come close to meeting current safety standards and will cost a small fortune to fix. For years the County’s road engineer has urged council to close the most hazardous part of the road—leaving the south end open and a secondary access to Mountain View, by way of Cannery Road.

But each time council nears a decision—a handful of folks file into Shire Hall to demand it stay open.

The road is a leftover from the ’60s when County Road 2 was pushed through to the newly reconstructed Highway 62 running between Belleville and Bloomfield. Union Road should have been closed when the alternate route was complete. But, then as now, many folks had grown accustomed to using Union Road on their way to and from Belleville. Many saw it, and continue to see it, as a bit of a shortcut.

The issue was compelling enough to draw former Councillor Peggy Burris back to Shire Hall last week.

Burris argues that the historic and aesthetic charm of the road justify it remain a through road, open at both ends. She says it offers her a “short moment of tranquility” on trips from Hillier to Belleville.

“It’s a symbol of what makes Prince Edward County attractive,” said Burris, adding that “newcomers don’t understand what we do here in the County,” drawing a now familiar line between qualified and unqualified County residents. Presumably newcomers can’t see or appreciate the picturesque quality of the homes, church and cemetery nestled tidily into the escarpment at Mountain View the way Burris does. This requires, according to Burris, the trained old-timey eye that only true lifelong County residents posess.

She warned council that if it capitulated to funding or tax burden arguments, other roads might soon be at risk.

The only resident of Union Road to speak to the issue said he would miss the traffic.

Current Councillor Kevin Gale says the twinspired Wesley Church is struggling to keep its doors open—that through traffic is needed on Union Road, presumably to lure commuters and passersby into becoming tithe-paying members of the congregation.

The councillor from Sophiasburgh also suggested that perhaps there are times council “needs to take today’s standards and throw them out the window.”

He recommended, as others did, simply cutting back the lilac bushes on the second blind corner—that this may be all that is needed to make the road safe.

The Public Works commissioner patiently cited, for the councillors’ education, a pair of recent judgments made in southern Ontario awarding many millions of dollars to accident victims to be paid by municipalities that had not maintained their roads to prescribed provincial standards.

The commissioner further noted that signs warning drivers that they used the road “at their own risk” would not insulate the municipality from the liability exposure that would flow from an accident claim.

Some noted that there have been very few accidents or mishaps reported on this little stretch of roadway—suggesting that drivers use extra caution when using Union Road. I suspect this is true—but it is hardly a compelling basis to ignore the poor state of the road, its blind corners and the steep ravine lining one curve. Nor would it mean much if a serious accident did occur on the road and the County had done little more than trim lilac bushes to prevent it.

According to the report before the committee the cost to repair the road to provincial standards cost about $900,000.

I use Union Road a lot. I like the twists and turns it presents. I am, despite only living in the County nine years, not immune to the charms Mountain View and Union Road have to offer. But I can live without this shortcut. I can live without its twists and turns—and the adrenaline rush of meeting a large pickup rounding the top corner on its snowcovered surface.

The good news is that blocking access at the top of Union Road won’t diminish its historic qualities or attractiveness one bit. Those seeking a moment of tranquility in their automobiles will merely have to enter Mountain View from the south or the east. We will all continue to have access to the twin-spired church, the cemetery and the history of this community. It will still be there and we can all still get there by car.

While I am not certain the historic and aesthetic charms of the County must necessarily be kept accessible to passing motorists—it is abundantly clear that closing the north end of Union Road is long overdue.

So far council has heard from those seeking to keep the road open; it is time it heard from folks who believe nearly a million dollars would be better spent on another road—or better yet—not spent at all.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca