"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 2 November 2011

A Couple of Things. One Positive.. One not

Council  directed a plan be formulated for public  review of the traffic calming plan in the north-east quadrant.

Last night a  staff recommendation was considered.

For $4,750,  a contract with the consultant who designed the plan, to review consequences of the plan   he designed, was  recommended to council

My first  reaction when I read  it  was;  so....council  has authority to  direct staff ....  but if we have the temerity to do so, it's gonna cost.

My second was why would we give the job of critiquing  consequences of the  plan to the plan's designer?

I was saved from myself.

Councillor Thompson took up the  cudgels. He had asked  questions previously and determined  town staff would in fact be doing all the work. That always happens with consultants.

The councillor argued forty-seven hundred and fifty dollars was not a large sum but it was too large considering.

The director offered it would provide an impartial analysis.

It was anything but an impartial process that got the infernal project approved in the first place.

I recalled an  explosion from the Director of Public Works, when I kept poking at it with a pointy stick:

"It's not a Public Works project. We take no responsibility for it"

Council had appointed a consultant to meet with complaining residents to come up with a plan that  would silence their complaints. The plan would  create quiet lay-bys in the hub of an urban centre. Their intention was to enjoy the peace of an isolated backwater along with  the convenience of being at the heart of things.

When the plan was presented to the outgoing council of 2003/6, the estimate was $100,000. It was approved and referred  for  budget consideration.  After the election.

The new council, five inexperienced members, included the plan in the new budget.

Specifications were prepared. Estimates  for the project were refined to $80,000.

Bids came in. The price had zoomed to $211.000.

Initial reaction from some Councillors  ...  "Oh My God, we can't pay that"

After  horrendous pressure, orchestrated by Mormac and  friends, Councillors capitulated under the stress. The contract was approved.

It was probably the most successful effort to attract tourism  our town  has ever seen.  People came to gawk at what had been wrought by the town.

Millions  spent to re-construct public rights of way and concurrently, a quarter of million to create sufficient obstructions to defeat the purpose. .

Some residents of the neighbourhood were compelled to drive  around the block to gain access to their homes.

Anyway, the  public are now to have an opportunity to tell council what they want done with the monstrosity.

I believe they want the chicanes gone  and  closed  and one -way streets to become a thing of our disgraceful past.

Outraged and inconvenienced  citizens are to be given a second chance  to reverse the perversion.

Safe  and efficient movement of traffic  can be returned.

Spread the word.

Don't wait for questionnaires.

Flood the town hall with your comments.

Make sure not to be drowned out a second time.

5 comments:

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christopher watts said...

Clr. Buck, please post notice here when a public hearing/meeting has been announced.

I expect that the turnout from the entire community, not just those on Center St., will be high, and hopefully they will be allowed this time to voice their concerns regarding their towns roads with an equal weight as those who reside there and lobbied for such a backwards approach to traffic "calming".

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't someone go in there with a bulldozer and tear out the offending chicanes, do some superficial repair to the roadway from which they were removed and have done?

You could end up on a perpetual motion machine with consultants retained to do this, then that, then this, then that, forever.

At the end of the day you have spent thousands, tens of thousands of dollars on these creatures with possibly nothing to show for it.

Is all the brain power on staff and council not able to initiate more, study it themselves and then make a decision which they can defend from the standpoint of the public's best interest as to both its need and its cost effectiveness? Both of these would be appreciated and would serve as a demonstration that people were doing their jobs.

Anonymous said...

They could have a trail in the dark. Two oncoming cars meeting at the bottom of the small hill on Walton just down from Catherine. That should be enough to determine that there is a serious issue with the chicaines. Consult complete!

David Heard said...

I have traveled this section at least 25 times and I have completed my own study.

It does not matter if you travel south or north or enter from a side street.

There is not a possibility you ever will find that elusive piece of cheese.