South River council responds after coverage of tongue in cheek debate riles residents

By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Some members of South River town council have taken issue with a story that reported on comments made at their February 5 public meeting.
At the meeting, while discussing a request for a water and sewer line extension to a property on Old Cart Road, Councillor David Petten joked, “If we go ahead and extend water and sewer down there, we’re going to have other residents in town going for torches and axes.”
Councillor Steven Rowe then quipped, “Don’t forget pitchforks.”
Some residents complained about those comments, which had been reported in The Shoreline’s coverage of the meeting, and so members of council took pains at this month’s meeting to stress that the comments had been made in jest.
Petten said his words were made “tongue-in-cheek.”
Deputy Mayor Melissa Hierlihy noted that members of the town council sometimes make witty remarks during their meetings, and that council as a whole wishes to make clear the remarks were jokes, quips, witticisms — meant in humour, and not intended to be taken seriously. They in no way reflect council’s attitude towards the issue or the residents, she added.
“Sometimes the written word doesn’t convey the motion or the gist behind it,” said Rowe.
Mayor Bev Wells explained there are other areas in town that need water and sewer, and council has higher priorities than the piece of land on Old Cart Road.
Petten said while he is not retracting the comments he made at the February meeting, more context is necessary to fully understand them.
“As Bev said, there’s other residents in town that are first in line, way higher priority than a new application or new development right now,” he said.
This was the context in which the mob joke was made, he said.
“The comment that I made was, we can’t approve this, because if we did, basically we’d be upsetting residents that have already been waiting for sewer for years,” Petten added.