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Great gate debate continues
By Liz Dadson

Kincardine council

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An emergency gate access on Victoria Street in Inverhuron remains closed while Kincardine's public works committee continues to discuss whether to open it to traffic during the winter months.

Currently, Kincardine has a policy in place that allows the gate to be open only at the request of Bruce Power for its bus traffic and to allow emergency vehicles through if the B-line (Bruce County Road 23) and Highway 21 are both closed due to a severe snowstorm.

Residents came to the Jan. 13 council meeting, asking for the gate to be open to the motoring public from Dec. 1 to March 31 or during storm events, citing safety reasons and better public access to Kincardine during road closures.

Public works manager Jim O'Rourke told Kincardine council Wednesday night (Feb. 3) that the committee needs more time to contact the stakeholders, the public and legal counsel to better understand all the issues before making a recommendation to council.

"We had a good crowd out at the Jan. 25 public works meeting," said deputy mayor Laura Haight who chairs that committee. "It was abundantly clear that with each action, there is an equal reaction, positive and negative."

She said there are lots of things to consider and the committee wants more time to talk to those involved in the original policy, including Bruce County which maintains the B-line.

Mayor Larry Kraemer said he has spoken to Brian Knox, county engineer, and the same problems exist that did when the original policy was drafted among the county, Bruce Power and the municipality in March, 2007. "There are still issues with Victoria Street, itself," he said, "and all the trees along that road."

Councillor Ron Hewitt said he was one of those pushing for a quick solution but he agreed there are a lot of things to be considered. "However, the status quo is not an option," he said. "Dec. 10 (during a severe snowstorm), the police did not close the B-line soon enough. There were 40 cars in the ditch between the 'S' bend and the county road." He urged council to get something in place soon.

Councillor Guy Anderson said council should allow the gate open now on a trial basis and see how it works. "It's easy to put it off until winter's over, while we study it. But a person could get killed in the meantime," he said.

Councillor Kenneth Craig asked O'Rourke how much more time is required.

O'Rourke said about two more meetings, in order to meet with Bruce Power, the OPP, the county and the municipality.

"So, we're looking at a policy for next winter, then," said Craig. "Two more months and it'll be May. Can we not get a quicker resolution?"

Councillor Marsha Leggett said Bruce Power workers are told that if the weather is bad, they should take the bus. "If we let one car through (on Victoria Street), they'll all go through, and we'll have a real cost to fix up that road."
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"Until we're prepared to straighten Victoria Street and widen it, we're going to end up with more accidents by allowing traffic through than we'd see on the B-line," said councillor Mike Leggett.

Haight agreed. "It's about 50/50. You're just as safe to take the B-line as Victoria Street. Our snowplow operators have not said 'if' there would be an accident (on Victoria Street), they've told us we're going to have accidents - between a car and a car or a car and a tree. If you're concerned about people being killed on the B-line, you're just creating another hazard (by opening Victoria Street)."

Kraemer said the proposal to open the emergency gate to all traffic is a bad idea.

"It was never intended to carry traffic from Highway 21 and the B-line," he said. "We have a good policy in place that allows it open for emergency personnel and Bruce Power buses, only when the B-line and Highway 21 are closed. We are also committed to the people who live along Victoria Street that we would not open that road to traffic. We should stick with that. I'm not in favour of changing the policy at all."

Hewitt asked if the road is as narrow as everyone believes.

"If you were to open it to traffic, it would have to be wider," said O'Rourke.

"How much narrower is it?" asked Hewitt. "Can someone find out?"

O'Rourke said that if a snowplow is travelling along Victoria Street, the operator cannot put the wing out if he is meeting a car.

In an E-mail to council, Bill Van Dam, a resident of Victoria Street, wrote that the pavement on that road is not very wide, many of the bends are not properly engineered, the corners are sharp and in some cases, the road slopes the wrong direction.

"Victoria Street was never built to municipal standards, and to upgrade it to those standards now would destroy the intimate neighbourhood character of our hamlet," he wrote. "We don't want the road slashed out 66 feet wide, and we don't want proper municipal ditches."

He said if the municipality wants an access road from Lorne Beach to the nuclear station, it should extend Albert Street all the way down to Lorne Beach.

Council granted the public works committee more time to debate the issue.
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Sunday, February 07, 2010