At the regular meeting of Barrhead County Council on Tuesday, Nov. 3, residents of R.R. 60 assembled to voice their concerns over the council’s decision to end the practice of oiling in their area.
“As residents, we are in complete disagreement with the decision to tear up this oiled road,” Ntala Quintilio, one of several residents who turned out as part of the delegation, told councillors. “Myself and my two neighbours across the road, Heather Stanley and Dean Selland, we all bought on this road because it was oiled, because it was very attractive.”
Quintilio said over the last ten years that she has lived on R.R. 60, the number of residents has increased. “There are two businesses on that road as well, a salon I personally run from my house, and the Schmidt Arena at the end of the road too.”
“Residents come to stay, to build a life and a home,” she said. “My property alone has increased in value by over three times what it was worth when it was purchased ten years ago, partially because we built a really nice house and improved our property’s value.”
Ten years ago, there were also only four residents from the Paddle River to the Paddle River bridge, she said, and added that now there are eight.
What Quintilio meant, she said, was that because of the increase in residences and construction work being proposed along the road, the council’s decision to end the oiling based on a perception of the volume of traffic was ill conceived.
“The road was oiled first because of its terrain and to maintain a drivable surface,” Quintilio said. “It was oiled because both sides of the hills topped by a graveyard became so washboard-like that no one could make it up the incline.”
The amount of complaints from residents at the time led council to put forward the oiling program, she said, and added that it was a safety concern.
“It is our belief that you have an obligation to us as residents to maintain this oiled road,” she said. “This fiscal year when you voted to tear up this road without any notification to any of the residents on this road, many of us wrote you letters and received verbal responses that contained terms like ‘fiscal responsibility’ and ‘too expensive to maintain’, so I am confused. Are the residents of Range Road 60 the only ones who have to be fiscally responsible in this county?”
According to resident Stanley, there is no benefit to a gravel road verses an oiled one.
“Unpaved roads have a really poor ecological record,” she said. “They can erode and sediment run-off can smother habitats which eliminates biodiversity, causes rivers to change courses and adds flooding potential to the mix.”
Stanley pointed out that she and her husband, Selland, were planning on building and were doing everything they can to improve the value of their property. “We believe the oiled road over a gravel one to be an improvement and if you take that away, you are devaluing my property as far as I am concerned and I’m not very happy about that.”
County Reeve Bill Lee acknowledged the delegation’s complaints and added that if he was in their boots, he would probably be before the council too.
Coun. Bill Lane, one of two councillors – Marvin Schatz was the other – caught in the cross-hairs because of misinformation that they had not even approached residents before the decision was made, attempted to clear the air by insisting that he had indeed gone to speak with several residents in the area. “They were quite surprised when I had a conversation with them about the cost of oiling a road,” Lane said. “They didn’t understand how much it would be. When I was going around, talking to the farmers, most of them were not in favour of an oiled road due to the weight restrictions.”
“I did not come and talk to each and every resident along that road but I had a pretty good idea of the feeling of the residents there,” Coun. Schatz said. “Going from an oiled road to a gravel road is probably going backwards, but the shape that the road was in, along with the amount that it was going to cost us to put it back to oil, I felt that for the time, gravel was probably the best way to go so that the road has a chance to dry out.”
Sue Porter-Williams, another of the delegates, was not impressed.
“I just came back from a third world country and I hate to tell you gentlemen, that piece of road you destroyed this spring is in worse shape than any of their roads and they have no maintenance that they don’t do themselves with picks and shovels,” she said. “I was absolutely disheartened by the comparison.”
According to Porter-Williams, her father fought to have R.R. 60 graveled in the first place, and her grandfather was the first person to ask that the road itself be installed. “You guys are going backwards in history,” she said. “You’re going backwards with technology. This is the 21st century gentlemen, we should be going forward. I don’t understand your philosophy. You mentioned farmers, but all of the farmers are here before you. Everyone you talked to, the one’s you said were farmers, they make their money in oil.”
Coun. Darrell Troock agreed with Porter-Williams, but added that he did not have a solution.
“These roads weren’t built for the loads we have these days,” he said, adding that pavement per mile costs around half a million – based on assertions from Public Works superintendant Cal Fischer. “I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t live on an oiled road. The problem, as council, is tax dollars. I’m perfectly fine with dust controlling the whole county, but it’s really hard as a councillor to decide who does and who doesn’t get oiling.”
“Either way, someone is going to be mad. I’ve been a councillor for eight years and every year we battle this problem,” he added.
“The decision to oil or not, is based in part on traffic and the type of traffic that’s on the road,” Lee said. “The more urban the usage, the more likely it is to be oiled.”
Lee said MG30 – magnesium chloride - was a solution, if only temporarily, to the problem. “MG30 isn’t as smooth as oil, but it is cheaper and it works just as well,” he added.
“It’s always good for residents to speak with council,” Mark Oberg, county manager, said.
“One of the problems with an oiled road is that it doesn’t last forever. It can be destroyed in a year, depending on what’s driving on it. In some situations, it makes sense to do oiling, but in others, it doesn’t.”
Oberg added that decisions like this are not easy for councillors and that the subject is one that they wrestle with constantly.
At press time, no definitive decision had been reached.
