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Jeff Green | Jun 08, 2006

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AddingtonHighlands rejectsSunday gun hunting pressure

by JeffGreen

Representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) have been travelling around the region trying to convince township councils that had rejected Sunday gun hunting to change their minds.

In Addington Highlands they ran into a brick wall. Although Councillors Eythel Grant and Bill Cox expressed some support for the idea, Councillor Louise Scott and Deputy Reeve Lorraine Berger were clearly opposed.

“I feel pressured,” said Reeve Ken Hook to the two representatives who were making the case for reconsideration. “If the province wants to do this so much, why didn’t they bring it in province-wide in the first place … I’d like to have some more input from the public, perhaps at some of the cottage association meetings that are coming up, before thinking about reversing a decision that council has made.”

“I think the best time to bring that up is election time,” said Councillor Grant.

Hook then said that if any member of council wanted to make a motion of reconsideration they could do so, but no motion was forthcoming.

Northbrook Parking – Several business and property owners living in the vicinity of Peterson Road and Hwy. 41, the site of a traffic light that is scheduled for installation in September, signed a petition asking that council consider purchasing a vacant lot on the north side of Peterson Road, east of the bank of Montreal, and turn it into a public parking lot.

The petitioners noted that there will be a loss of parking spaces on Hwy.41 as the result of the new stop light and the lane reductions that will be necessary. They fear this will lead to a “serous risk of business loss because of the loss of street parking and the physical restrictions to the entries to the existing private parking areas.”

The lot is available for approximately $10,000

“I personally think it is good planning in that it is supportive of local business,” said Reeve Hook. “There is a reserve fund to do this,” said Councillor Bill Cox.

Council passed a motion asking the clerk to investigate the purchase.

Reeve Hook brought another piece of information forward concerning the new traffic light. The light will not be controlled by a timer; there will be video cameras facing each of the cross streets, and the light will only change when there are vehicles waiting at those locations to enter Hwy. 41. Travellers on Hwy. 41 may rarely see a red light as they pass through Northbrook .

The traffic light will also be the first in Lennox and Addington to be equipped with speakers, making it appropriate for use by the visually impaired.

Skootamattans want timely road grading – Ron Nowell, President of the Skootamatta District Ratepayers’ Association wrote a letter to council concerning the condition of township roads around the lake on the Labour Day (2005) and Victoria Day (2006) weekends.

“Last year for Labour Day Weekend the roads around Skootamatta were perhaps in the worst condition of the season. This year for the Victoria Day weekend the roads again were in very poor shape,” Nowell wrote.

Noting that “lake residences get very little for the high waterfront tax base that is derived from them,” the letter asked that all roads around the lake be graded for the long weekend.

Township Roads Superintendent Royce Rosenblath said, “I would say we make an effort to maintain all the roads in the township. I’m not sure what happened at Skootammatta this spring, although I can check, but it is a three-day procedure to grade those roads. We can’t spend all of our efforts on one particular road, however.”

Roads construction – Addington Highlands has completed a joint tendering process with Lennox and Addington County and Loyalist Township for road paving this year. At a cost of about $150,000, single surface treatment will be done in the Northbrook vicinity

on Airport Road, Allison Road, Brookside Lane, Firehall Road, Lloyd Street, Trumble Avenue, Westpark Lane, Upper Flinton Road. In Kaladar, Neal, Oliver and Station Roads will be done. Double treatment will done on a portion of the Upper Flinton Road and on the Hartsmere Road . (The Hartsmere Road work is the largest of the projects, costing more than all of the rest combined.)