Pavement versus grass
Council accepted the recommendation that the boulevards being installed as part of the Yonge Street reconstruction and Mindemoya Drain work, under the Labelle Brothers contract, be paved instead of sodded for an additional cost of $27,504 plus HST at the Municipality of Central Manitoulin council meeting on August 14. As Councillor Pat MacDonald stated, there was considerable discussion on this issue and the roads superintendent had favoured pavement for ease of cleaning. “Grass boulevards do look nice,” Mayor Gerry Strong noted, “but in the long term we will reduce maintenance costs.” Councillor Adam McDonald said he found it particularly disheartening that some property owners stated that they would not cut the grass if it was installed in front of their properties with one owner telling the mayor that he did not want grass put in front of his property at all.
Councillor McDonald asked for a recorded vote on this recommendation with Mayor Strong and Councillors MacDonald, Taylor and Cannard voting in favour of the motion and Councillor McDonald opposed.
The motion recommended to council that it consider rescinding Motion No. 122-14 that authorized proceeding with the addition road construction of base and pavement without curb on Duke Street (to the intersection of Laurie Lane) to a maximum cost of $27,500 was defeated at the council meeting August 14. Councillor MacDonald explained to council that some money could be saved by wavering this work and that the roads superintendent had said that leaving this work for a year would not make any difference. Mayor Strong added that the roads superintendent had also said that he could do this work at a lower cost and the mayor thought that council should ‘jump at that.’
“Initially I was against this work,” Councillor MacDonald then told council, “but after looking at the numbers today, I think that all the work should be done. It is already included in the cost that we are expecting.”
Councillor Taylor noted that there will be a large paving crew in the municipality next year with the paving of Highway 551. “Perhaps,” he stated, “we could get a better deal rather than getting asphalt shipped from Sudbury.” Mayor Strong also put forth the idea of saving money by having the municipality’s crews prepare the base for this work and noted that he would have to ask the roads superintendent about this. With the defeat of the motion, Mayor Strong asked that this matter be looked into to get a better cost for this recommendation.
