Both this Cost Effective Proposal and The Town’s Construction Referendum proposal result in the achievement of the Town’s objective, which simply stated is to create a link for East Side residents which provides safe non-motorized access to downtown and recreation areas on a paved surface.

The Town says it’s necessary to pave the path on the east side of the river, the entire 1.3 kms between the Fairview Bridge and the river weir to provide additional recreational experience and safe hard surface access to downtown.

The Cost Effective Proposal is to pave the 90 or so meters from the east end of the pedestrian bridge to the paved access into the south end of Willowglen. This achieves the same necessary end as the Town’s proposal. The Town’s increases the length of paved path available along the river to expand the available recreational experience.

The Cost Effective Proposal does not expand this recreational asset because the existing pathway system is extensive for size of community and the amount of users. There are presently over 10kms of paved path along the west side of the river. In addition for the less adventurous, there are paved paths around the sports fields at the Community Centre. The path south of Fairview Bridge is particularly under utilized. Creating an additional 1.3kms of paved pathway is not a necessary end. There are users on the east pathway now, which may be an indication that some users prefer not to walk on asphalt (dog walkers can avoid people conflicts and horse riders avoid hard surfaces).

The Town’s proposal provides for multiple access points to an east side paved pathway north of the pedestrian bridge.

The Cost Effective Proposal provides necessary access at the south end of Willowglen. Providing more than one access point is not required to achieve the Town’s objective (see first paragraph, above). Two access points envisioned by the Town maybe unavailable in any case, one is marked as private property (the development just north of Willowglen) and the other at the Forbes property appears to be a protected wetland where asphalt should/would not be welcome. The Town justifies paving 1.3kms because multiple access points are required so wheelchair users do not have to travel on 87th St.

Actually neither The Town’s proposal or The Cost Effective Proposal require wheelchair users to travel on 87th St to get to paved pathway. Northbound to Willowglen, there are modern sidewalks and path on the west side of 87th St. Southbound towards Willowglen on 87th St there are modern sidewalks on the east side, then at the 87St/85 St junction there is a crosswalk for users to cross 87th to the west sidewalk which can be traversed for the 200 yards or so into Willowglen. These sidewalks all have curb cutouts for wheelchairs and are underutilized. The Town’s proposal costs $200,000 for 1.3 km’s of pavement.

The Cost Effective Proposal, prorating the Town’s cost to apply to only 90 meters, i.e 90/1300 times $200,000 is less than $14,000. It should come in much less than this amount because this proposal doesn’t require detail work at other accesses. I’m in favor of providing Cost Effective safe access for Eastside residents (able, walking challenged and in wheelchairs) to paved pathway at the River, on smooth hard surfaces.

Article submitted by Don Rudzcki