By Michael Bennett
Local Journalism Initiative
The Ridgetown Independent News
Better late than never.
That’s the outlook of some rural residents after Chatham-Kent council’s decision to reinstate its dust suppressant program on gravel roads.
But the catch is that it likely won’t happen until September, and not all roads in the rural area will be sprayed.
Council voted 13-3 to restore dust control measures after they eliminated the process during budget deliberations last fall as a $1.35-million cost saving.
However, instead of solely sourcing by using the previous service provider to begin spraying local roads as soon as possible, the municipality will use an RFP process to find a contractor.
In the discussion leading up to the vote, Ryan Brown, director of Public Works, said if staff were to put out an RFP, “it’s going to be September, realistically, before we can start the work because of the time it would take to review tenders and come back for a vote since council only meets once in July and August.”
“By the time we get a contractor on board following an RFP process, we might get 25 percent of the roads done this year,” Brown stated. “And you have to ask yourself the question: if we’re starting in September, is there a really a need to do this suppressant this late in the year?”
One of the local residents who has been a staunch advocate of dust control measures and made a deputation at the recent meeting said applying the suppressant in September will still be beneficial to residents who live and travel on county dirt roads.
“The rule of thumb is you apply it twice a year, once in the early spring and again in late summer,” said Jim Brackett, president of the Kent Federation of Agriculture and a lifelong resident of the gravel portion of New Scotland Line, east of Kent Bridge Road. “We still have lots of windy, dusty conditions in September, October and even into November. So there will be some benefits.”
“We’re happy, as the KFA, that someone gets it this year if it’s the best we can do,” he added.
Four rural residents made deputations at the council meeting.
Beth Gladstone emailed photos to members of the council of thick dust clouds created by traffic around her and her husband Ross’s Braemore Line home.
She said traffic is especially bad on Saturdays, due to the fact as many as 100 vehicles a day use Braemore Line to get to the municipal waste disposal site adjacent to their farm.
“The constant volume of cars and large trucks creates dense clouds of dust that significantly impair visibility and increase risk of accidents,” she told council. “It’s not just a convenience but a real safety concern for motorists meeting oncoming traffic, especially with limited manoeuvring space on gravel roads.”
Betty Stirling, a Spence Line resident, shared an experience of a neighbour who wound up in a ditch on Kenesserie Road because of dusty conditions.
She said the neighbour was driving a skid loader northbound when he was passed by a southbound farm truck and trailer, creating a huge dust cloud.
“He immediately headed to the ditch because there was no visibility, and that was a life-saving measure because right behind the truck was a large four-wheel drive tractor that he didn’t see, and I’m sure the tractor driver didn’t see him,” told Stirling.
The cost to the taxpayer is unknown because of the uncertain timeline for the process to be completed – as the normal time is 45 business days to treat all gravel roads in the municipality – and the quantity of product the successful contractor will require with fewer roads to sprayed.
What is Chatham-Kent doing with the Japanese beetle, an invasive that is devastating people’s yards and gardens? It should not be up to the taxpayers to cover all the expenses to try and deal with this problem, but the levels of government should be helping out also