Motor bike delinquents rip up Paradise trail again

By Mark Squibb

Nearly $17,000 worth of armour stone proved not enough to keep vandals off the trail at Trenton Drive.
On June 24, Paradise council approved $16,100 in repairs and an additional $16,930 to erect armour stone at the trail after it sustained considerable damage from delinquent dirt bike and ATV usage.
Now it seems, even more damage has been done.
“A resident alerted me last week that, after all that hard work and expense, delinquents again managed to infiltrate the area and cause some additional damage,” said councillor Glen Carew, who brought the matter forward during last week’s committee of the whole meeting. Carew asked for an assessment of the new damage, an explanation of how delinquents accessed the trail, and what measures are being taken to see the problem is resolved and, given that the Grand Concourse Authority placed the armour stone, whether there would be any recourse on the cost to repair the damage.
Deputy Mayor Kimberley Street said the topsoil was damaged, but no trees or shrubs were hurt.
As to how those responsible managed to bypass the armour stone on their machines, Street said staff believed “they lifted their bikes over the stone with the intention of tearing up the area.”
The Town had contracted the Grand Concourse Authority to construct the trail, which connects Trenton Drive and Octagon Pond Elementary, last October. The majority of the work was completed in 2024, with tree planting and hydroseeding to be completed this year.
The Grand Concourse submitted a construction estimate of $132,895, plus HST, based on the preliminary designs, and council award the contract to a limit of that same amount.