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Feature Article July 17

Feature Article July 17, 2002

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Anthropologist observes Central Frontenac council in action I walked into the July 8 meeting of the Central Frontenac Council in Mountain Grove not knowing what to expect. My father, News publisher and editor, David Brison, had invited me to work on The News for a week during my summer break from my job as an anthropology professor at a small college in upstate New York.

On my first day, he suggested that I go with him to cover the Central Frontenac Council meeting. "It's going to be an exciting meeting," he assured me. There were a couple of controversial issues on the table, including a proposal for a new three-way stop on a back road and some disputes over road names. Knowing my father's tendency to optimism and enthusiasm, and feeling more than a little bleary-eyed after spending the previous ten hours editing stories to go into the July 10 issue of the News, I had a fleeting urge to beg off from the council meeting. Three-way stops and road names...how captivating could that be? But then I remembered how 17 years ago, when I was a doing my Ph.D. research in Papua New Guinea, Dad had visited me and loyally trooped along behind me through the mud, tropical heat, humidity and bugs, to meeting after meeting about land disputes. "Dad," I had always insisted, "this is really going to be exciting." And off we would go to listen to people talk for hours, in a foreign language that he couldnt understand, about the doings of remote ancestors. And always, when we returned in the evening, he had assured me that he had had a great time. "It didn't matter that I couldn't understand them; you could get the flavor of what was going on just from their tone of voice." So I reasoned that if Dad could deal with that, I could put up with a sore neck and a little Canadian heat and humidity.

I found myself both impressed by the efficiency of the Council and genuinely engaged with the issues they discussed. The greater part of the meeting was spent on settling complaints about road names assigned last year by the 911 volunteer committee. During the year, council had received a number of complaints about names but decided to wait and deal with them all at one time.

Sounds simple? I learned on Monday night that assigning road names is a complicated and emotionally charged process. Take, for instance, the case of four Oso roads named for the Burke family: the Burke Settlement Road, the Lindsay Burke Road, the Howard Burke Road, and the Harold Burke Road. Councillor Marsden Kirk argued persuasively that the township could be liable if people confused the name of their road in the heat of the moment when making an emergency call, and emergency workers then went to the wrong location (several councilors acknowledged that this had indeed already happened). Marsden, who was a member of the 911 committee for the Kennebec district, told us during a brief break that he preferred to avoid family names, and in particular given names, for roads, so as not to create confusion in an area where a few families have been historically prominent. "Better to go for Bluebird Lane, or something like that," he told us, "then you avoid all these fights." But on the other side of the issue, people feel attached to local names that have been used for decades and reflect a shared history. "This is our heritage," one of the petitioners said, and proudly presented to the Council a petition with 85 signatures, asking to reinstate the name "Guigue Road" in recognition of a family who had lived in the area for over 100 years. "You're going to open a huge can of worms if you start changing names that people have used for 100 years," said Mayor Bill MacDonald, when Councillor Kirk suggested that the Council re-examine the names of all the Burke road variations.

I was impressed by the practical, but considerate, way that the Council reinstating long-used road names if possible but gently suggesting that residents think of new names for their roads when name duplication was at issue. Thus, the Council reinstated "Guigue Road" (over the Committee's choice of Lakeside). The Council was also willing to consider renaming "Northview Lane" "Harold Love Lane," if the local residents supported that choice (although they rejected the suggestion "Love Lane" as likely to attract local teenagers). They also renamed "Kirk Cove Lane," as "Kirk Kove Lane" after a camp, long known by that name, that was located on that lane. A road named Robinson Road, that had been known for years as Johnston Road, could not be changed back because of duplication, but was renamed Elijah Road in honour of an Elijah Johnston. They also decided that in the numerous cases when "lanes" (private roads not maintained by the township) and "roads" (maintained by the township) had been given similar names, residents of the lanes would be asked to submit suggestions for new names. While sympathetic to Councillor Kirk's concerns, as an anthropologist, I couldn't help being pleased at the efforts to preserve local tradition!

Other items on the agenda: The Three-Way Stop: Resident James Yateman had asked that a speed limit be installed near the intersection of Elm Tree Road and Garrison Shores Road. Council, in a previous meeting, had suggested that a three-way stop sign might solve the problem. Yateman argued that cars speeded past his house, near the intersection, and endangered his young daughter, Courtney, who liked to bicycle along the road. Several area residents, however, sent letters opposing the proposed stop signs, and two residents attended the Council meeting to speak against the three-way stop. They argued that a stop sign would hinder drivers from building up the speed necessary to go up a nearby hill, particularly in the winter. They also suggested that roads were primarily for cars, and that the Yatemans could bicycle in a local conservation area. Council decided not to install the stop signs.CF_Anthropologist_Observes Curb on Hwy 38, just south of Sharbot Lake: There has been a rash of accidents involving vehicles hitting a curb just south of Sharbot Lake on Road #38 and breaking tires. Mayor MacDonald said that the curb had been in the same place for years, and that township officials could not understand the new rash of accidents. But Central Frontenac could be liable for accidents caused by the curb. The Council voted to give roads supervisor Bill Nicol permission to look into solutions to this issue. Karen Brison has written a book about meetings: JUST TALK: gossip, meetings, and power in a Papua New Guinea Village.

With the participation of the Government of Canada