Rural residents remind Kincardine council of need for bridge on Concession 5

To the Editor:
RE: “Kincardine selects Queen Street Bridge over Concession 5 bridge for grant bid”

Very interesting debate.

Again it comes down to town versus rural, and I am with rural.

Why not suggest closing down the Queen Street Bridge as the Huron Terrace Bridge has just been rebuilt, and see how the town folk feel about that?

They can use Highway 21 or Huron Terrace to get from one side of town to the other.

Hope MacCrostie
RR 4, Kincardine
 

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To the Editor:

Any Concession 5 resident has had the ‘pleasure’ of driving behind badly-strapped-down trailers coming from town to the dump. I cannot imagine those folks being routed to the highway instead – slow moving and dangerous. The better choice is for that litter to fly off at highway speeds? I don’t think so.

You've also never seen the traffic on a Wednesday morning. For those who don’t know, that’s processing day at The Beef Way, one of the last standing and best processors around.

I’ve had a house fire. It took the already-dressed firefighters a very long time to get to my house, because they drive trucks and not space ships. The Amish had come and gone on horseback, and we managed to put the fire out with hoses and pots of water before the fire department arrived. More barriers to access for emergency services is not wise.

I’ve made more than a couple of emergency hospital runs in winter; we deal with far different snow than town. Council is suggesting we cut off all those residents to the only straight shot into the B-Line and the hospital? It can take 30 minutes to get from one end of the 5th to the other in bad weather.

“We” out here on the 5th, get to watch the sunset through a wall of blinking red lights, and are now soothed to sleep by mechanical 747s. “We” get the dump as a neighbour.

“We” support construction companies of all kinds, cash croppers, small farm producers, and quotas, energy income (almost $700,000 per year to the municipality). Give, and give.

Rerouting traffic elsewhere is just increasing wear and tear to another rural roadway. We’re already $72,000 in!

Has the municipality consulted with the concrete company on Concession 5 which, coincidentally, has repaired bridges just like this in Huron Kinloss?

The irony isn’t lost on me.

Ashley Richards
RR 2, Kincardine