Letters_11-29
Back to HomeLetters - July 21, 2011Letters: July 21
Re: Motorcross: What Price Good Neighbours?, John Sherbino
Re: Motorcross: What Price Good Neighbours?, Mel Therien
Ho! Hum! The northern ambulance base again! Leo Ladouceur
Re: Motorcross: What Price Good Neighbours?
There has been considerable discussion in you paper and elsewhere about the request by Bill Day Jr. for the development of a commercial motocross track on his property on Rutledge road.
The arguments presented – yours included - have focused on interpersonal disputes and miss a larger and chronic problem facing Mr. Day, his neighbours and all township residents – Council has no comprehensive development plan. It continues to treat issues as they arise and without having some larger context our councilors can not be sure that they will in the long run do more good than harm.
Rutledge Road is a main thoroughfare in a township that we are told will outgrow neighbouring regions in the next decades. What do we want it to look like? It’s not just the question of residential or commercial but what kind of each and how many?
Lets assume that Mr. Day’s enterprise goes ahead and doesn’t further annoy his neighbours. What if it’s successful? Will he ask to expand? Will he move from or be required to move from portable toilets to a septic system? Will his overnight campers need water supply, and electricity? If the traffic increases will the road need altering? Is this the kind of business appropriate to a road serving an increasing number of single-family dwellings?
These questions hold equally well for other areas of the township and without a plan, Council has no way of knowing. Each decision is a shot in the dark.
Rather than waiting to see who yells the loudest or sues first, Council, given its mandate to serve all the residents of South Frontenac might want to start thinking long term - longer than the respective terms of office.
If Council would, using the skills of its professional staff, examine the possibilities for long term planning it will be in a position to approach each request for large or small development with the future of the township in mind. There is an opportunity here to do some good.
For that reason alone, Council should refuse Mr. Day. Not because his request is bad for the township but because Council has no informed idea.
John Sherbino
Re: Motorcross: What Price Good Neighbours?
I would like to thank Jeff Green for his article last week but I must also say that he was misled by Mr. Day about the decibel readings on the motocross bikes. The Maguire racing series does test all their racers’ bikes but not to 96 decibels, but to 99, as stated in their race brochure. These readings are taken about a foot from the exhaust of each bike but they do this at 1/4 throttle!
As for Mr. Day and his practise nights, they do not check the bikes; as a matter of fact they run Quads (4 wheelers) with no mufflers but straight pipes. I know of no race in motocross where bikes race at 1/4 throttle but they do race mostly wide open and then decibels doesn’t matter; it’s just plain noise that we as a responsible community cannot allow to happen.
We need as much support against the track as possible because our country way of life is at stake, not just us close to the track but each and every one in South Frontenac. This whole racing thing started against the laws of the township and now the racing community wants us to change and we say NO. We like our quiet community just the way it is and if you do as well come out to the Aug 2nd council meeting to defend YOUR way of life.
Mel Therien
Ho! Hum! The northern ambulance base again!
I would like to help Warden Gary Davison understand why his 1,500 sq.ft. ambulance base, which will be built like a castle, can be equal in cost to a 2,500 sq.ft. fire hall, which will be built like a heated steel garage. Castles cost much more to build than heated steel garages. Now if a country bumpkin like me can understand that, I’m sure Mr. Davison can too and he could even explain it to his colleagues in Kingston.
All of us who follow the foolishness of this ongoing ridiculous charade in the “News” know that justifying a 50/50 split of the joint ambulance/fire hall concept is not Warden Davison’s issue. It’s just another excuse for him, some county councilors and county staff to keep delaying a decision on the project again and again until it dies. From the day county council approved the concept of a joint ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah, Mayors Davison and Gutowski and county staff have had no interest in approving or proceeding with this project. The county’s tactic is simple. It costs them nothing to constantly stonewall the making of any decisions but at the same time never really being the ogre by scuttling the proposal. But for North Frontenac Township, as each month passes the size of the new Ompah fire hall dwindles because of escalating prices.
Two things can happen – one of the parties, either the county or the township, can finally say enough of this, pull the plug and get on with their own separate projects. But then again, county council could cease their blockade, bring the issue to a vote, make a decision and get approvals for the project. For the sake of affected residents of the Township of North Frontenac and for all the readers of the “News” it would be nice to see some action and see it soon. Besides, this tripe about the northern ambulance base is cluttering up our newspaper.
Leo Ladouceur
