Farmers and business owners in West Kent want the municipality to take a closer look at how bridge closures are affecting their livelihood and safety.
At a meeting Thursday night in Tilbury, about 70 residents in the area of Queen’s Line, Pollard Line and Merlin Road expressed their concerns with how closing nine bridges currently on the divestment list for Ward 1 will impact the farm community and three businesses already hurting from a bridge closure on Pollard Line near McKinlay Road.
Chatham-Kent director of engineering Adam Sullo was on hand to answer questions, as were Ward 1 councillors Marc Authier and Bryon Fluker.
Organizers of the meeting Tom and Beth Olsen are making a presentation to council Dec. 5 and asked for feedback from the people present on what to include in the submission. They opened up the floor to questions.
While they understand there is only so much money in the infrastructure budget for bridges, approximately $7 million of the total $40 million, Olsen said there has to be a better solution for rural residents.
Olsen, to get to his fields from his home on Pollard Line, has to travel with his equipment on a Highway 401 on-ramp for a short distance, which he said is a huge safety issue for him and drivers trying to use the ramp, not to mention the inconvenience factor.
One resident said if the municipality actually closes all nine bridges, Ward 1 will effectively become a gated community with the only exit point in Merlin.
Also discussed was the issue with ambulances and other first responders being able to get to residents in Ward 1, and Sullo said all bridge closure info has been given to EMS Medavie and all first responders.
A point of contention, as well, was the notice of motion put forward by Fluker, calling for an increase to the farm base tax from 0.22 to 0.25 per cent to be spent specifically on bridge repair, representing a ballpark $1,000 increase to the average property owner.
“Before amalgamation, there was 60-80 per cent funding for bridges by the province. Now, there is no funding, zero,” Fluker said to the crowd. “That will generate about $1.2 million in funding per year, but we need 10 votes and we only have two votes for East Kent.”
Fluker said he is “cautiously optimistic” he can get the 10 votes needed.
A concern expressed by residents present was that they did not trust that the money, if put into the infrastructure budget, would actually be used just for rural bridges.
Members of the Kent Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture were also present. Speaker Louis Roesch said they don’t agree with the farm tax increase, given the amount of increase already to the farm tax.
“Agriculture is the single highest contributor to taxes in Chatham-Kent,” Roesch said. “Agriculture has already paid more than its fair share with the 72 per cent previous combined increase and it needs to stay at 0.22 per cent.”
Roesch said the KFA and OFA have committed to working with the municipality to find ways to help get the bridges fixed rather than increase taxes and believes there are still government sources that need to be explored.
“We need to challenge the way bridges are engineered and constructed,” he added. “New construction methods are half the price, less time and with the full 75-year life span.”
Sullo said he continuously learning about new methods but would like to see more hard evidence of the longevity and safety of some of the new methods and materials being used.
“We have more infrastructure than we have money to pay for it, and it is a competition between wanting to keep taxes low and planning for all our infrastructure needs,” Sullo explained. “We have 830 bridges in Chatham-Kent and are currently working on a report to council coming Jan. 16 to discuss how we will get to full funding. Currently we would need an 18-per-cent tax increase to fix all the bridges.”
After hearing concerns from business owners on Pollard Line about the road closed signs that turn people away from their location on the road, Sullo said he made a note of it to ask about putting up additional signs letting people know Tilbury Auto Recyclers, 51-50 Speedway and Country Fresh Meats are still open for business.
Municipal staff have also been directed to look over the bridge divestiture list to see if it needs to be re-prioritized, since it was done two years ago.
