Sick of traffic delays? We hear you, says mayor

By Craig Westcott/October 21, 2022

If you’re one of those people on Neils Line, Frog Pond Road, Pond Road, Mission Road and other places in CBS who is growing tired of your daily commute and other travels being delayed by road work this fall, Mayor Darrin Bent says he hears you and commiserates.

Bent said he and the rest of council have been hearing the concerns most of the summer and into the fall.

“Especially recently in the Neils Line area there have been concerns and it’s been very frustrating for area residents,” Bent said. “The detour has lasted longer than we anticipated, than we were told. It affects people who bring their children to the two schools that are right in that close area there. They’ve had to detour and around that area and it’s been frustrating for them. And to be honest, it’s been frustrating for council as well.”

Bent said the Town asked the contractor before the work started to conduct most of the construction outside of school time. “But that didn’t happen,” he said. “And there are a number of things that affect that. I’m not making excuses, but I will point some things that have had an effect. Of course, all businesses have been affected by staffing issues. Also doing this kind of work, when you put a shovel in the ground, you never know what you’re going to find, and delays come when there are issues that need to be addressed at certain places.”

But progress is being made. Bent said over the past few days stone has been laid and the sidewalks are almost complete at the corner of Neil’s Line and Route 60. “And within the next few days or a week or so we’ll have a paved road with curb and gutter and a new sidewalk finally for that area, making it safe for the young people who walk to school from that area,” said the mayor. “They won’t have to squeeze onto the road any longer next to the building on the corner there. They’ll be able to walk safely on a sidewalk down to a crosswalk and cross over to the school to another sidewalk. That was the goal for this, and that was something I heard from residents in that area ever since I was elected to council, that they wanted to get something safe done there. And that’s what’s happening. But that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be frustrated about the delays; I think we all are.”

Bent pointed out council doesn’t get to stipulate the time requirements for contractors. 

“That’s a Provincial (government) purview as they issue the contracts, and it’s something that we’d like to work on with the Province so that we can have some controls in contracts going forward, where we can have some of the things that we want put in there and stipulated,” he said. “And we’ll reach out to them on that and work with them if we can. And it’s not just Neils Line, it’s all over town in areas where we’ve seen delays. We’ve seen it on Mission Road, and we saw it right down here on the CB Highway and it was probably the most frustrating of all because it was right on the main thoroughfare. These are the types of things that happen when you’re doing work to upgrade and improve the area around your town and this year we have done an unprecedented amount of roadwork. And when you add water and sewer to that, we expect to hear more concerns than usual. But the delays are frustrating, and we’ll do our best to work with the Province to see if there is anything we can do going forward on that issue.”