Municipality expresses displeasure with Lacloche billboards
LITTLE CURRENT—During the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Island’s annual meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) Northeast region held recently, the mayor and CAO were given a somewhat clearer idea of timeframes for the new swing bridge.
Mayor Al MacNevin told The Expositor that the municipality has so many ongoing concerns involving MTO that for a number of years, an annual meeting has been held with top officials. At this year’s meeting, the swing bridge was again top-of-mind.
At this meeting Mayor MacNevin and CAO Dave Williamson were again told, as this newspaper has reported previously, that a general contractor would be hired for the new swing bridge project by year’s end.
“Our CAO pushed that further and asked when they (MTO) would start entertaining detailed designs and construction might actually begin,” Mayor MacNevin said. “We were told two years.”
“I get that it’s a complex project, but I don’t get the length of time,” he added.
The mayor and CAO also brought up concerns with the length of green lights on the swing bridge, particularly in the summer season, and why not a move back to manual controls during peak busy times. Mayor MacNevin said each time the issue is raised MTO officials seems reluctant to entertain the idea. The control booth, central and high above the bridge, is staffed during the summer months, dawn to dusk, should the bridge need to be swung open, on the hour, for boat traffic to pass through. In the fairly recent years, the staff would also control the length of the green lights as they can see lineups at both bridge approaches from this vantage point.
The meeting also discussed the issue with enforcement during half-loading season, to which the MTO replied that letters have been sent to the Manitoulin Ontario Provincial Police detachment offering the police service use of its portable scales for a joint enforcement blitz.
Lastly, the proliferation of billboard signs on Lacloche Island was also raised at the meeting. Mayor MacNevin shared with council earlier this month that approximately 12 years ago, MTO approached the municipality about offering up sign space for lease on Lacloche Island. The municipality firmly rejected the idea, pointing to the pristine beauty that the travelling public enjoys in the leadup to Manitoulin. They had full agreement from the Fielding/Wallace family, which owns all of Lacloche Island, and the MTO agreed at the time to keep it status quo. Starting last year, however, signs have begun to crop up at a high rate, causing some members of council to raise concerns. The Fielding/Wallace family has also approached the municipality, asking for its assistance in finding the correspondence with MTO from over a decade ago.
Councillor Laurie Cook called the billboards an “eyesore.” The mayor agreed.
“It is ugly,” he said. “And it completely disrupts the pristine beauty of Manitoulin and the leading up to it. They seem to be hell bent to put up as many as they can.”
The municipality will be writing MTO to express its concern with the billboards and their placement along that stretch of Hwy 6.
The Expositor reached out to Jeff Wallace for comment, but had yet to hear back by press time Monday.
