By paNOW

Access road infuriates RM of Nipawin residents

Jul 26, 2013 | 10:07 AM

A number of residents of a housing development in the Rural Municipality (RM) of Nipawin are voicing their frustrations about a new access road being constructed.

The Gingara Subdivision sits along Tobin Lake and has only one road into the subdivision. Since the project to build the road had been announced, residents have signed a petition rallying against it. One resident, however, issued a press release outlining the opposition to the access road.

Grant Bastedo is resident who issued that press release, and on Tuesday, he said work has recently restarted on the access road after it was temporarily on hold. He said the work crews “ripped out” trees, gardens and front lawns “because it infringed on RM property.”

“The entire subdivision got together, we did a petition, ‘we said look, stop, you’ve wrecked this down here, don’t touch anything else, we’re done. We don’t want you to touch anything.’” He said all but two residents signed the petition, but said all residents of the subdivision are opposed. The first petitions circulated about a couple of years ago.

Bastedo said finally, last year, the residents told the RM to “cease and desist,” and that the RM did not respond to the petition.

Fire Supports

NBFD sending support to La Ronge

A few moments ago

Animal Evacuees

Battlefords Humane Society; Furbaby's helping animal evacuees

53m ago

Denare Beach update

Fire claims structures in Denare Beach, evacuation order remains in place

1h ago

“Last Wednesday, all the trucks came in and they started ripping stuff out and they started ripping out the road that comes into the subdivision, which is our only access road.”

Then on Sunday, he said a light rain “stranded” all of the residents because no one could make it up the hill and out of the subdivision.

“We were able to get a couple four-wheel drive vehicles up the hill, but the vast majority of people were stuck here for the entire day, because there was no way to get up and there was nobody we could talk to at the RM to get them to help us,” he explained.

He said the construction has created a huge embankment down the side of the road.

“And that embankment is like a 20-foot drop that didn’t exist before, and now, when you have a really slick and slippery road, somebody is going to end up going off and rolling their car off of this thing.”

He said the RM told residents the road needed to be constructed because it was a “liability” reasons, and emergency vehicles have to use the road and an “RM standard” road is needed for that.

But Bastedo said because they live in what’s essentially a hamlet or small town, they don’t need a two-lane road with shoulders.

He said the original plan called for ditches, but after the residents opposed the ditches, the RM relented and is instead building up the road as high as five feet in certain areas.

When people were stranded this past weekend, it was because the road was so muddy, people could not make it up the hill, he said.

As of Tuesday morning, there were a couple of cars that had to be left in his driveway because they could not drive out of the subdivision.

Earl Reese is also a resident of the Gingara Subdivision who is opposed to the road development.

He said the main issue has been overlooked: The area is located along the Saskatchewan River’s banks.

“It’s well documented—the instability of the Saskatchewan River bank. I think a real good example of that right now would be the area around Nutana in the City of Saskatoon.”

He said the residents can’t do anything about the road now. “This council has decided it’s going to go ahead be it good or bad what they’re going to do and we just basically have to sit our hands here and watch things go by until after the fact. And then I think there’s going to be some pretty some sorry people around when it’s all said and done…”

From here, Bastedo will continue to work to convince the RM to halt construction on the road.

“I’m basically going to try to do the 60s-fashioned sit-in, at least try to dissuade them from doing this, I don’t think it’ll work. And then, after this is all done, we’ll see about potentially doing legal action.”

Numerous attempts were made to contact Reeve Mark Knox, but he did not return calls to paNOW. Councillor Joe Woodward declined to issue a comment regarding the claims in Bastedo’s press release.

Woodward said he’s “been through all this before,” and said there’s “no truth to half of that stuff that he wrote in there. And people are going to find out.”

He added the RM does not spend money foolishly. “The RM did this construction to improve it. That’s what we do.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames