Marsh, Bear Cove Roads require rapid repair

Two agenda items at Oct. 15 Municipal Council Committee of The Whole concerned Digby Neck roads and an apparent lack of interest from the province on their maintennance. The Bear Cove Road contains a water supply used by volunteer firefighters while the Marsh Road contains a rough, unpaved section area dwellers would like to see smoothed out and graveled.

A letter to council from the Tiverton Fire Department complained the Bear Cove road needed repairs and another had questions about sharing the cost to upgrade an unmaintained section of the Marsh Road. "We will be talking to Department of Transportation and I believe we have a meeting with them coming up in about a week's time," said deputy warden Jim McAlpine last week. "At that time we'll be raising that with them." "We meet with the dept manager locally and the regional manager about four times a year. If there's any issues, we usually raise it at that time. But if something comes up in-between, we still give him a call once in awhile."

Local DoT supervisor Brian Foote has come up through the ranks, having started with the department down here in 1979. He was surprised to learn that, according to the letter to council, the Tiverton FD had been trying to have the Bear Cove Road repaired for two years. The note complained of potholes, a lack of proper ditching and overgrown alders.

Foote said the only requests he's had for that road have been from a plough driver to cut a few alders where the ditching had ended. "No one has come to me," said Foote last week. "Usually if something goes through the minister or the area manager, I get a carbon copy of the reply letter - and I haven't seen that."

Foote said the road was classified as abandoned by the province and was used as an ATV trail until about four years ago. A busy forest fire season and lack of accessible water saw the department open the road and lay gravel so firefighters could get to the water. He said the road is maintained up to a point where the pavement ends and the only work they had planned to do was cut some alders so they wouldn't damage the plough's mirrors this winter. "We ditched some on there last year, we put in that new cross culvert, we put in a driveway culvert, and we're about to go on a rampage on Digby Neck with bushes. So that's going to get cut while we're down there."

Foote said the situation with the Marsh Road is a little bit different and involved a court case to determine ownership. He said it's looking like the department is going to put a cul-de-sac on the south side, and probably the #217 side because a lot of the road isn't provincial property. "It's a community pasture thing, and I think only one person uses it now," said Foote. "Transportation offered some money for gravel, but the promise of matched funds never materialized."

According to information received by council, local residents say farmers use that road and the area is an attraction for tourists, hikers and birdwatchers. They suggest sharing the cost between the Marsh Body, provincial agriculture department, transportation, and the municipality and said because the road is flat and well-ditched, maintenance might entail annual grading .

McAlpine said the issue had been discussed with DoT in the past, and it will be brought up at their next meeting. "That road is quite rough, and over a period of time with no work being done to it, it's got a lot of big potholes," said McAlpine. "We're going to go back to them again to see if there's any way possible to do some work on it this year."