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Small Victories

One of the benefits of living in the ward I represent is noticing the small things that need attention. One of those “small things” can now be crossed off my list.

At the beginning of my term I toured our neighbourhood with the Director of Community Design and Development. I pointed out that while Paisley Rd. was one of the primary connections to the rest of the city, the sidewalk on the north side of the road was missing.

In fact, the sole bus stop on Paisley road required residents to walk along a dusty goat trail to access the rest of the community; not particularly accessible to say the least.

The original plan was to look at installing the sidewalk as part of a larger motion I made to move forward with a pedestrian rail underpass to Margaret Greene Park  as identified in the trail master plan following the fatal accident we had last year.

I expect this issue to be debated by council next year, however by the end of this summer a number of sidewalk projects planned by the city could not be completed and my request was bumped up to the front of the line.

Together with staff we reviewed a number of other sidewalks that need to be completed in the west end including Imperial Rd. south of Speedvale and Elmira Rd. south of Willow. These projects are in the works for next year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Personal Soapbox, Planning, Ward 4 News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Small Victories”

  1. Mike Salisbury Says:
    January 15th, 2009 at 11:50 am

    Follow Up

    I had the chance to walk down “my” new sidewalk a few weeks ago, and everything was just great until I got to Hewitt Lane where the sidewalk disappeared beneath a foot of snow.

    I am pleased to report staff were very helpful in solving the dilemma. Below is a copy of an email that was copied to me shortly afterward:

    Bob;

    I received a call last night from Councillor Salisbury pointing out an inefficiency in the current sequence of sidewalk plowing involving Hewitt Lane. As you know, this street parallels Paisley between Imperial and Candlewood, very close to Paisley. It actually has exposure along Paisley as a sort of lay-by type of scenerio. Being that there is no sidewalk on Paisley( north side), adjacent to Hewitt Lane through this section, it was recommended by Councillor Salisbury to plow the sidewalk along Hewitt Lane as if it belongs to Paisley Road. This request makes sense as currently the plowing continuity along the north side of Paisley is interrupted by the non existing sidewalk along Paisley proper. The intent of the design was to have the pedestrians walk along the sidewalk on Hewitt Lane when walking along Paisley.
    Can you please implement this change to your plowing sequence through this area.

    Thank you.

    Sam Mattina | Manager
    Roads/Rights of Way | Operations
    City of Guelph

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