Timmins city council is starting to see the effects of servicing a couple country roads.

Recently, Charland and Bertrand Roads were approved to be brought up to city standards and allow winter maintenance to be performed.  This item was on and off the council table more often than most care to count.

The contract for road upgrades was awarded to John Wlad & Sons Construction Monday night for $28,959.28 + HST.  The cost for winter road maintenance

Now, cottagers near Kenogamissi Lake are looking for relief.  They state in a letter they don’t want the same thing as Charland and Bertrand, but have asked for a rebate or a reduction in property taxes instead.

Councillor Walter Wawrzaszek has said if those residents pay property taxes locally, they deserve to be serviced by the city.

However, the long-standing argument is that there are many outlying country roads in our area and would cost the city a fortune to upgrade and service all of them.  This is why the discussion on Charland and Bertrand lasted so long.

But since a policy was broken to service those roads, Councillor Noella Rinaldo says a standard has been set and knows more requests like this is coming.

In the end, council voted to look at the options and have staff bring back the item at a later date.

Filed under: Local News