Irondale bridge to be replaced

HE council first to sign Blue Dot campaign

The following are brief reports of items discussed at the Nov. 9 meeting of Highlands East council.

By Angelica Ingram

Councillors in Highlands East are the first in the county to show their support for the Haliburton Highlands Blue Dot campaign part of the David Suzuki Foundation’s national campaign.

Being spearheaded by Environment Haliburton the campaign was explained by members Heather Ross and Carolynn Coburn during a special delegation where Ross said they have been canvassing all over the county.

“The Blue Dot movement is a campaign to have our right to a safe and healthy environment enshrined in the Canadian Constitution” wrote EH in their delegation to council. “The first step in the campaign is to achieve declarations by our municipal governments to do all they can to ensure that our local environments are safe and healthy.”

Ross said that if council passed a resolution they would be the first in the county to do so.

While Councillor Cam MacKenzie initially showed some hesitation council unanimously voted in favour of passing a resolution declaring that all people have the right to live in a healthy environment including the right to breathe clean air the right to drink clean water and to consume healthy food the right to access nature the right to know about pollutants and contaminants released in the local environment and the right to participate in decision-making that will affect the environment.

A tender in the amount of $678208 was awarded to Fidelity Engineering and Construction for the replacement of the East Irondale Bridge.

The total cost of the project came in higher than anticipated due to the scope of the project changing from the replacement of a single lane bridge to the creation of a two-lane bridge.

Part of the project is being funded by the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund which gave the municipality $283589 for the bridge work announced earlier this year.
Construction on the project is set to begin next summer.                                                              By