Winding road

Council reverses course, chooses Closson Road over County Road 4

In a surprise reversal, council defeated its original motion to see staff apply for an Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program grant for County Road 4.

At the April 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, council had approved staff’s recommendation to apply for a grant for work on County Road 4 from the Millennium Trail at Talbot Street to Highway 62. The project also included replacement of a bridge near the Highway 62 end of the road. Staff had chosen County Road 4 as the project that best fit the grant criteria.

Closson Road residents and business owners Tim Kuepfer and Rolande Leblanc made deputations to council last week regarding the state of the road, and presented a petition they had started on the Easter long weekend that received 159 signatures.

Councillor Ernie Margetson believed that Closson Road made the most sense from a financial standpoint. “This choice of project has some benefits beyond just the road. It has the maximum amount of grant with the minimum amount of municipal top up,” said Margetson.

Closson Road is currently sitting in the capital plan for reconstruction in 2022 at a cost of $2.75 million. Combined with the $1.5 million project on County Road 2, which is set to begin in 2021, the total project would approach the $5 million maximum for the grant. The municipal contribution would be $708,475, as opposed to spending an unbudgeted $4.6 million to make up the difference on County Road 4.

Margetson also noted that previous councils had promised the road would be fixed. “The past commitments to do this road have not been honoured. That is another issue of council making commitments and not honouring them in the past.”

Acting CAO Robert McAuley explained to council that it had not made a promise it did not keep. “Council did not make a commitment on Closson Road that it did not fulfill,” said McAuley. “Closson Road was on a five-year, then a three-year surface treating program. As the time came closer, the road deteriorated faster, so it came off of that surface treating list and ended up on a full reconstruction list.” Ultimately, this meant that the road became bumped down the line.

McAuley told council that there is the beginning of a strategy that involves ground asphalt and grading of the road as a year over year patch. McAuley admits that it is not a solution, but it would buy time on the Closson Road project, and possible other category 1 roads. “It may also be the way we bridge this problem of category 1 roads and not having enough dollars,” said McAuley. “We have a surplus of crushed asphalt at this time and we will be getting more coming off of these construction jobs so there may be a workable alternative to bandaid the road until we have the funds to actually fix it.”

It is important to note that in 2014, the municipality paid KPMG, a consultancy, to assess infrastructure needs and recommend a path forward. KPMG determined more than $200 million was needed immediately to bring County infrastructure up to a satisfactory level and that many more millions of dollars would need to be spent each year to maintain it.

The average annual cost to build and rehabilitate the County’s road network is about $16.2 million

The County only spends about $7 million on rebuilding its roads and bridges each year. Each year, the County’s infrastructure needs fall further behind.

Councillor Jamie Forrester worried about the precedent the change might set. “I have a real concern here if we get back to the point that petitions start changing the way we do business,” said Forrester. He noted that Athol ward has many roads that need resurfacing, and it would be easy to show up at council with a petition.

McAuley explained that a new road needs study would be coming forward to council later in the year with criteria used to select roads, but he feels that council, as well as the public, should be allowed to weigh in on its choices.

Mayor Steve Ferguson asked Director of Community Development and Strategic Initiatives Neil Carbone which project had the best chance of receiving the grant. “Based solely on the grant criteria, County Road 4 has the best chance at succeeding,” said Carbone.

The new new motion to apply for the grant for Closson Road passed, 7-6.