Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Transportation was a common theme of discussion during Greater Napanee council’s July 9 regular meeting.
Active transportation was up first with a presentation from Dave Milligan and Dr. Tom Touzel of the Ad Hoc Trails Committee. They appeared before council to discuss the progress of their goal to create a trail network throughout Greater Napanee.
“Ultimately we’d love to see a situation where trails could link the major rec facilities, schools, shopping areas, business workplaces so that we could be less dependent on the automobile,” said Touzel. “We wanted to create a future vision. We all realize this isn’t happening in the next year or even two, but we’d like to set this whole thing in motion and we have some good ideas on how we could do this fairly cheaply.”
Touzel said the trail network would have benefits such as a healthier population and cleaner air, while also attracting more visitors and ultimately residents to the town.
“We’ve recruited five new physicians coming to town this year,” said Touzel. “One is already here, two in July and two in the fall. None of them are living here. They live in Kingston. They don’t know how great it is here but we really want to create a town where young people, our sons and daughters want to return to work here and young people want to come here. That’s where a lot of this comes from.”
Milligan informed council they’ve already begun mapping out a series of trails that connect north, south and east and west throughout the town. Some are already mostly established routes that wouldn’t require a ton of work-such as adding trees to create more of a barrier between the path and the roadway. Others would be much more involved, such as footbridges across the Napanee River or a crossing of Hwy 401.
“Trails that would be safe for an unsupervised 10-year-old to travel on as well, elderly people,” said Milligan of the type of routes they envision. “People of all ages essentially, we want to be able to build a trail network that is very inclusive with a well packed base whether its gravel, asphalt, whatever, lighting, benches for security so that people aren’t afraid to use these trail networks.”
Touzel added at this stage they’re looking to move from a planning phase to beginning to implement some of their ideas.
“We’re not asking for a lot of money, we’re asking for endorsement and we’re asking for a committee to move ahead with this and we’re asking for support for the project and that’s a fairly easy thing,” said Touzel.
Council voted to note and receive the presentation, with several members of council chiming in that they are fully supportive of the group’s work to date.
-A matter of a different kind of transportation came before council as Caroline Detlor appealed to council for help to restore Senior Outreach Services’ (SOS) Town Bus Service.
Detlor, an employee of Martin’s Bus Service, has served as the driver of a bus that ran twice a week for local seniors. In June, SOS discontinued the service, which has been offered for over 20 years. Seniors relied on the bus for regular social outings to Wendy’s.
“Most of these people live on a very minimum monthly income and they are restricted in their mobility,” Detlor told council. “Most have walkers and canes to walk. My bus goes into the parking lots, up to the buildings and the volunteers and myself help with getting them onto the bus and putting their walkers in and removing them once they get to their destination.”
Councillor Bob Norrie, council’s rep on the SOS board, stated they simply didn’t have the funds.
“It was a tough decision. It’s either $1,600 or $1,900 a month, I forget how much to run that bus and they just don’t have the money,” said Norrie. “It was a hard, hard decision but it was strictly business, not people. My understanding is over 64 per cent of our taxpayers are seniors. I don’t know what we can do right now but we are racking our brains at SOS to see how we can help out.”
He added the seniors won’t be forgotten as they explore a solution, but it may take some time.
Detlor said she was willing to work with SOS to figure out cost cutting measures, such as shortening the route or only running once a week, to find a solution.
Mayor Terry Richardson noted the town would look into the matter, but also cautioned that they can’t tell SOS how to operate. He encouraged SOS to explore sponsorship opportunities with local businesses as well.
-Following up to their Pride Month celebrations, Greater Napanee Pride’s Chris Beauchesne shared some of the highlights.
He noted 240 people took part in the parade and the event saw hundreds of attendees from as far as London, Montreal and New York State, with over $50K in local spending.
The group also proposed the idea of a sponsor sign next to the rainbow crosswalk in Market Square to highlight those who contributed to the cost of painting the road. Town staff will bring forward a report to council at a later meeting.
-Council will next meet on July 23 for a regular meeting.