Jenna Leslie | Oct 19, 2016


A group of concerned Hartington residents gathered at Princess Anne Community Centre on Saturday to protest the new Boyce Road subdivision plan in Hartington.

They were there to support 15 grandmothers who walked five kilometres from the community center, down Boyce Road and back. The walk was designed as a way to raise money for an appeal that they plan to make to the township regarding a new subdivision that is to be put in Hartington.

Developer Terry Grant has plans to build 13 new houses in the hamlet of Hartington. The subdivision is to be put in approximately 500 metres east of the intersection of Road 38 and Boyce Road, behind the Princess Anne Community Centre.

Many residents are concerned about what extra stress these plans could put on what they say is a limited water supply.

John Lesperance has been a part of the committee fighting these development plans for around three years now. He is one of the many residents concerned that the new development could have a huge impact on the water supply in the area.

“Hartington has always been a very restricted area for water that’s why it has never developed much more than the size it is,” says Lesperance. “So it was quite surprising for us that they would decide to put in this kind of development with this kind of demand on the water resources in an area that has always been known to have scarce water.”

Not only are the residents concerned about the amount of water available, they also fear that the quality of the water has diminished over time. They question whether the water has been contaminated by the old gas station that was on the corner of Road 38 and Holleford Road.

The protest walk was organized as a way for the concerned group of residents to raise money for their cause. The money that they have raised so far will go towards their participation in an Ontario Municipal Board meeting in May when the board will be considering the case of the development. In order to be effective in the process, the committee must raise a total of $50,000 to cover legal fees and engineering studies.

The group has been doing a number of different things to try to come up with this money over the years. One of their biggest sources of fundraising is their GoFundMe page online, where they have come up with around $22,745.

This walk was not the end of the committee’s fundraising plans as they work to reach their $50,000 goal.  

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