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Back to Home Letters - October 20, 2011 Letters: Oct 20

Tar & Gravel Roads in North Frontenac, Dave Winney

Re: Hoax letter concerns Algonquin negotiators, Robert Lovelace

Quick thinking re hazard on Road 38, Jule and Catherine Koch

Tar & Gravel Roads in North FrontenacMr Mayor

Labour Day weekend! We’re driving along Road 506 on a stretch where “chip & tar sealant” had been placed a few days previously. Vehicle approaches from the opposite direction and as it passes we’re struck by a dozen pieces of stone shrapnel. I realize that there are now three neatly spaced, star-shaped holes in my windshield.

I later learn that Steve Smart of Smart’s Marina had an interesting adventure in the same general area around the same time. He virtually slid into the intersection at 506 in Fernleigh trying to slow for the turn. Braking on uniformly graded aggregate is similar to stopping on a bed of marbles.

“Chip sealing” is an effective and economical way of extending the life of asphalt pavement, used all through the U.S. and Canada. There are four basic steps. A thin film of heated asphalt is sprayed onto the road surface followed by the application of small “chip” aggregates. The chips are then compacted with a rubber-tired compactor to orient the chips/stones for maximum adherence to the asphalt, and then the excess stones are removed. These steps are common in all technical descriptions of the process and are transferred to all contract documents as required. Occasionally, the technical descriptions will mention that the last two steps are necessary to prevent damage to personal vehicles when traffic is resumed.

Guess which two steps the Township of North Frontenac neglects to perform? The logic here is, obviously, that township money can be saved by allowing taxpayers to utilize their personal vehicles to compact the chips and spread the excess to the sides of the road by bouncing the stones off bumpers, paint jobs and windshields. In fact, damage to personal vehicles is inevitable. The only questions are how bad and how many letters will be initiated to the township.

Being an avid motorcycle rider for the last half century, let me explain how bikers deal with the flying stones. Purists, such as myself, who don’t have windshields to hide behind, wait until the last instant then duck their faces down and listen for the shrapnel ricocheting off the top of their helmets and finely shone paint jobs. Distracted driving? About equivalent to riding a bike on the 401 steering with both feet up on the handlebars, throttle locked and a cell phone in each hand.

Your staff tells me it is not township policy to reimburse taxpayers for damage caused by township work. I have sent you and my local councilor a couple of emails asking you to reconsider and also to correct the “chip and tar” process used by your staff before our township faces a heavy lawsuit from some poor biker who wakes up on the side of the road with a stone chip in his forehead and no feeling from the waist down.

Thus far, no reaction and certainly no support from my elected officials. I am left with little choice but to put this before the courts for a legal decision.

If this is the result you wanted, you have just read exhibit A.

Dave Winney

Re: Hoax letter concerns Algonquin negotiators

What an interesting hoax. The News ran a headline article last week about the malicious email attachment that misrepresented the Algonquins of Ontario land claim negotiations. Many people received this letter. I suppose this is what is meant by something in cyber-space going viral. It certainly was a sick joke.

But what concerns me is that there was some finger pointing in the responses that were solicited by the News. If I were Bob Potts, I’d be angry, but blaming people who oppose the AOO land claim is not right either. In his words, “What it comes down to, (is) that you can’t have an open debate and discuss meaningful matters in a conscientious way as opposed to using all kinds of dirty tricks like this.” There are a number of Algonquin communities that have legitimately not taken part in the AOO land claim on moral and philosophical grounds and who have been denied a debate. The fact that Jeff Green includes the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation as an opposing community suggests that Mr. Potts’s comments may be directed at Ardoch. Perhaps the News should contact Mr. Potts and seek clarification.

Many of our members received the hoax email. There was a brief flurry of discussion but everyone knew that it was a sick joke. Who wrote it? Who knows? It could even have been someone on the inside who is disgruntled with the process. There are a few of those, I’m sure. As far as open debate goes, there has never been one because no matter what anyone says; the AOO has pushed the discussion beyond debate. And as far as dirty tricks, one might say that the governments have been guilty of this when they threaten to lay harvesting charges against Algonquins who don’t opt into the AOO process. Ardoch has always taken the high road. We don’t need to engage in dirty tricks.

For Ardoch, we are unconcerned. The Ardoch Algonquin First Nation has recently begun preliminary talks with Ontario and Canada regarding either a separate claim or treaty inclusion. Like the AOO, we have a long way to go before an honest treaty can be achieved. Certainly a treaty that will really benefit Algonquins in any way is a long way down the road. What is more important is that Algonquins share every day in the goodness of the land and culture and fulfill our responsibilities as Anishnàbè.

Robert Lovelace

Quick thinking re hazard on Road 38

Thank you to Darren Antoine, who left the comfort of his home on a miserably cold, dark, rainy night to alert travelers of a hazard on the highway. A vehicle had plowed into the guardrails by his house and driven away from the scene of the accident, but in the process, had ripped the guard wires off the posts. This left the wires strewn across the highway, along with the nails and metal brackets that attach them to the posts. If anyone had hit those wires at high speed, they could have become badly tangled up in them, not to mention having their tires punctured by the nails and brackets. After witnessing the accident, Darren took his flashlight and went out to warn vehicles, and he also cleared the highway as best he could before police arrived.

The incident happened on the night of Oct. 16 near Brewer Road and 38, and we were among the cars that were alerted. We wish to thank Darren for his quick thinking and actions.

Jule and Catherine Koch