Shades of the Past

And Knowles Crescent and political compromise. Which cost us dearly.

Nisbet Drive is scheduled to be re-constructed in 2010. Early in the process, residents informed the town they did not want a sidewalk. The stated preference was accepted in accordance with policy.

Since that time, the preference has changed as has the policy. Sidewalk is preferred. One who did not support it before now acknowledges the need. Seems the sidewalk was not the problem . It was the location that troubled one more than the rest.

"Don't cut my driveway in half with a sidewalk. It will reduce my parking space" he cried.

A compromise has been found. It is clearly political. There is no way on God's Green Earth it can be anything else. Yet it is proposed by the Director of Infrastructure and Environment.

Some Councillors have noted a reduction in staff reports recently. Often agendas literally have only minutes of previous meetings to approve. The reason now seems apparent. Compromise is embedded in staff reports.

See if this makes sense.

My continuing reference to pandering and extravagance to a handful of Knowles Crescent residents by the Mormac regime has been a source of chagrin. It has resulted in a different method of handling sticky wickets.

Have staff recommend the compromise and politicians will be in the clear. Those opposed to staff recommendations will be declared infidels. What better arrangement could there be?

Nisbet Drive links two older subdivisions; my own neighbourhood and Golf Glen. Partial sidewalks are in place exactly where they should be. The proposed sidewalk should simply connect the two. Like the dots.

Instead, the sidewalk is to be built abutting the road.

Six metres wide of concrete to accommodate snow and pedestrians and the road bed will be moved over by a metre.

To justify the recommendation is expense of moving public utilities, sidewalk plows will remove snow piles created by road plows and the sidewalk already there will be broken our and thrown away.

Concrete is substantially more expensive than asphalt. Two metres is twice normal width. Therefore two metres will cost twice as much.Add the cost of breaking out existing sidewalk and disposing of the same.

Sidewalk plows do not accompany road plows. They do not handily move snow pushed off the road .

Fifty years ago, public rights of way were taken to allow for future urbanisation. It's the reason we are able to accommodate boulevards and sidewalks when re-constructing roads in subdivisions of this vintage.

Sidewalks could be on both sides of the streets if need be. Public utilities have been placed accordingly. Pictures forwarded by the resident of Number 63 Nisbet show the facts clearly.Light standards and hydrant are in the boulevard section.

Therefore the expense of moving utilities is a canard.

Boulevards serve three purposes. They accommodate utilities, snow in the winter until it melts and they separate pedestrians from the travelled portion of the road.. It's safer and people are not drenched with spray and muck from vehicles during flash floods.

They accommodate trees and grass beneficial to our living environment. They absorb exhaust fumes and keep them from reaching the environment.

Boulevards are not just a pretty face.

Nisbet Drive is well travelled . Residents from the north use it for access to shopping.

Residents from the south use it to reach the Liquor Store. Traffic can be hazardous on occasion. Vehicles sometime swerve dangerously. No person has been injured but property in driveways has been damaged.

Moving the road bed by a metre is proposed. It's not really a bed. It's not like pushing it it's being pushed. A road bed must have a base. Shifting it a metre, means a metre width by street length of a new base to be constructed,. estimated by some to add $50ks to the cost of re-construction.
The extra costs can have been reflected in the budget approved for the project. Nor were they provided at last week's meeting.

But Aw Heck...who cares when you've got ten per cent contingencies and politicians are all on side...except one.

I wonder dear readers, if you really appreciate how much it means to be able to share this stuff with you.

Tis said residents of Nisbet don't care as long as they get a sidewalk. I think they 're just like residents of Knowles Crescent and every other taxpayer in town ...wasting money for no reason but political expediency is not a principle they embrace.

Damn Right!