Author: The Record
Published May 7, 2024

Mayor Mario Gendron presided over the 45-minute meeting with well over 50 separate items on the agenda

Cookshire-Eaton holds its monthly council meeting

By William Crooks

Local Journalism Initiative

The Municipal Council of Cookshire-Eaton held its monthly meeting May 6 at the Cookshire Town Hall, with much of the public discussion centering around the use and abuse of local roads.

Topics at the meeting also included two unanimously adopted bylaws authorizing substantial loans, one of more than $11 million, and a proposal to replace Birchton’s baseball field with a housing development.

Mayor Mario Gendron presided over the meeting with around nine local residents in attendance. The meeting lasted roughly 45 minutes, with well over 50 separate items on the agenda.

Roads   

In the meeting’s first question period, community members voiced concerns about local infrastructure, municipal projects, and public safety issues. The conversation started with a citizen addressing Gendron directly.

He offered a proposal concerning municipal street cleaning operations. Observing street cleaners at work, he believes their labour conditions are deplorable and inefficient. He suggested the city should invest in advanced cleaning machines that can streamline the process. According to him, these machines can significantly reduce the workforce required, resulting in more efficient cleaning.

Throughout, he passionately described the difficulty street workers endure, emphasizing how disheartening it is to see them struggle. He insisted that better equipment would make their work easier, allowing one operator to do the job of multiple people.

He also brought up a Facebook post advertising a new machine that could handle the workload with a single person. He expressed concerned about the maintenance of the equipment, noting that sometimes machines are down for repairs.

Another individual raised concerns about the grading of gravel roads. He claimed that the current maintenance isn’t keeping up with demand, leaving potholes that reappear shortly after grading. The individual questioned the need for additional graders, considering that in the past, fewer graders handled the same workload without a problem.

Further conversation highlighted road widening initiatives that could necessitate additional gravel. Residents expressed frustration with the inefficacy of repairs, noting that water drainage issues persist. The municipality’s reliance on external contracts rather than fully utilizing in-house resources was questioned, and Gendron acknowledged the concern.

Another speaker discussed speeding vehicles in a residential area. He reported how a delivery driver was recently clocked at 64 km/h on Chemin Learned Plain, endangering pedestrians and employees who work near a blind curve. He suggested reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h to ensure safety.

The conversation briefly shifted to the perceived negligence of a local event organizer who allegedly failed to notify residents about decibel testing and other measures to mitigate noise complaints. A council member claimed that the project is suitable but agreed it shouldn’t occur near residential neighborhoods.

Finally, a citizen questioned the recent voting process for a dam project in Cookshire. He mentioned confusion about the process, recounting how he was informed that he had missed some paperwork during the voting. After a neighbour’s call, he returned to rectify the issue, but was upset that it occurred. A council member agreed that it should not have happened, but insisted it was unintentional.

Throughout the meeting, Gendron listened attentively, validating concerns and promising follow-up actions or further clarification with relevant departments or stakeholders.

Loans

Notable amongst the many items on the agenda were two new unanimously-adopted bylaws introduced to authorize large loans.

The first allowed the town to go ahead with an expenditure and a loan of $800,000 for the repair of municipal services on Sawyer, Bibeau, and de la Meunerie streets.

The second focused on the implementation of a water network in the Johnville area. This by-law will permit a loan of $11.1 million for the project, which will include a grant from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing under the Municipal Infrastructure Program.

Ballpark

The Record received a message in mid-April urging it to look into the proposed replacement of Birchton’s park with a housing development.

The message said tensions are rising due to the municipality’s plan to demolish the ballpark, playground, and picnic area in favor of an expensive housing development. It said since merging with Cookshire, Birchton has lost several amenities and now faces losing more.

The message said Yvon Roy, who contributed significantly to the park’s creation and is a former town councillor, is determined to oppose the plan. The Record was provided with Roy’s contact information but has received no response to attempts to contact him since April 17.

At the end of the second question period on May 6, the Record asked the council about the issue.

Councillor Marcel Charpentier responded that a meeting would be held May 14 wherein residents from Birchton are going to “tell [the council] what they want.”

“Nothing is decided,” he added.

“We’ll go from there,” Charpentier continued, “there’s no skyscrapers going up yet.”

He went further and explained that no baseball is possible at the park because the town cannot get the appropriate insurance. “We have two really nice ballparks, one in Sawyerville and one in Johnville,” he said, which are insurable.

The Birchton ballpark is not insurable because the “ball goes too far,” he said, “and you cannot control who goes on there.”

The Record was initially under the impression that the upcoming meeting will be open to the public, for an attendee urged this reporter to put the date of the future consultation in this report.

However, Adjoint General Director France Dumont confirmed May 7 in an email that “there is a meeting between a citizens’ committee and the city, but it is not public.”

The Record followed up and asked who was on the citizen’s committee and why the meeting will not be public but did not receive a response before this article went to press.   

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