[1]Thurlow residents sit and listen to Councillors Paul Carr and Jackie Denyes at a ward meeting on Tuesday night. Photo by Cody Starr, QNet News
By Cody Starr [2] and Lindsey Harren [3]
BELLEVILLE – Residents of Belleville’s Thurlow Ward expressed concerns about the cost of taking on more debt to build and maintain infrastructure during a public meeting Tuesday night.
“We’re not use to that. Personally, we don’t live that way, but the new generation does,” said one resident during an exchange at the meeting.
A little more than 20 people attended the meeting. It was held to present the operating budget which will be finalized later this month. However, in the question period that followed, the public was more focused on the breakdown of the approved 2017 capital budget projects.
One resident kept pushing the councillors for an explanation on the city’s increased debt. He noted that two local bridges were included, that didn’t look like they needed work done. Local councillors said the work is provincially mandated. Other residents added to the debt discussion, by stating that better roads are needed, but debt is not.
The city had accumulated $102,300,000 million in debt at the end of last year. The city is projecting $122,489,000 million of debt at the end of 2017.
Belleville Mayor Taso Christopher told the audience that something had to be done to improve and update deteriorating infrastructure. He noted that can’t be done without taking on debt.
A couple of residents raised concerns about ongoing heavy truck traffic at the west end of Maitland Drive. One man said it’s not just Maitland Drive that has a problem.
“Even it they come off Millennium [Parkway] to go across the bridge, they’ll take your car off. Nobody is looking at that,” said one man about traffic in the area.
When it comes to Maitland Drive, ward councillor, Paul Carr, said that construction at new residential developments has increased truck traffic. He said that notices about truck traffic restriction are posted in a section of that road.
He told QNet News after the meeting that Maitland Drive isn’t a main roadway. “We will continue to monitor. But like anything else, where we see that there is a deterioration in the road we will implement restrictions in order to preserve assets.”
He also stated that city staff have said that the design of the road can handle the traffic.
The capital budget contains another new addition for Maitland Drive. There is a $300,000 initiative to pave the shoulder of Maitland from Sidney St. to Highway 62. But not everyone is happy with the plan.
The extra pavement wasn’t a selling point for some residents who were concerned about children walking along the busy road back and forth to school.
“I was thinking the paved shoulder was ideal for people travelling- like cyclists,” said a Thurlow resident about Maitland.
Carr said that the paved shoulder was decided over a sidewalk as a cost-effective measure.
He said it was a good compromise and pointed out that there wasn’t a lot of development around the area.
Coun. Jackie Denyes , for ward 2, pointed out that the same paved shoulder decision was made in Plainfield. The main street there has a shoulder instead of a sidewalk.
Denyes said that Thurlow will see $75 million dollars from the city’s full capital budget.
Coun. Carr told the audience before the meeting that rural emergency response costs will be discussed in a fall public meeting.
This map contains the major infrastructure projects listed on the 2017 capital budget that are located in Ward 2.