I read with great disappointment and concern the recent article on the front page of this paper about the fading support of Council for trail development in the Town.

Members of the Trail Committee have been working extremely hard over the past several years to establish a high quality trails system within the Town. They have raised thousands of dollars and worked in cooperation with neighbouring municipalities and agencies and the County of Dufferin to ensure Orangeville’s trail system can be linked and coordinated with their systems. They understand the many benefits that rails make to the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of the Town.

Town Councils over the past several years have provided significant support for the ongoing development of the Town wide trail system. This support has been in the form of finances, staff time, and moral. In 2009 the Town provided financing to complete a Trails Master Plan. There was significant opportunity for public input during the process of preparing this plan and for the public to view the plan. These plans have always included the concept of constructing part of the trail system along the existing rail line. Anyone following this process should have been well aware of this. The final version of the plan was presented to and accepted by Council.

Based on the content of the Trail Plan the Town in 2009 applied for and received approval for Infrastructure Funding in the mount of $220,000.00 in Provincial and Federal aid. The Town is to provide $110,000.00 in matching funding.

Concerns with respect to the safety of the public using Town facilities including trails must be and I am sure are taken seriously at every level, and step in the process. I am sure the Trail Committee and staff are well aware of the potential safety issues related to establishing public trails. Many details such as those that relate to safe use are worked out at the detailed design stages of any project, which is the stage I understand the project is at.

What is most confusing, and disconcerting in all of this is Councillor Bradley’s seemingly late aversion to the project. She has been Councils representative on the Trail Committee for some time. Surely she would have familiarized herself with the issues related to the project, and brought them forward for discussion at the Committee level long before now. For the Council representative on the Committee to publicly withdraw support at this late stage of a project is beyond understanding and I am sure embarrassing and devastating for all the other Committee members. It may raise questions in some people’s minds about her intentions vis a vis trail development from the outset. Judging from reports in the papers several of the Trail Committee members seemed taken aback with Councillor Bradley’s public opposition at this late stage. It leads one to conclude that she did not give the Trail Committee a “heads up” on what she would be doing. If that is indeed the case it was a rather disrespectful way to treat the committee. It would have been professionally courteous for her to advise the Committee of her intentions well before making them publicly known.

If she found herself in a position to not be able to support some parts or even all the project she should have told the committee before announcing it publicly. Perhaps she did this, and these comments are redundant, but the perception created from the newspaper articles lead one to conclude that was not the case.

I am sure her and others concerns with respect to public safety are legitimate, but she and Council could at least give the Committee the benefit of the doubt at this point and allow them the opportunity to review the details of the plan and see if acceptable alternatives can be developed that would address the issue of safe use.

There is a program called Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) that has been around for several years. Perhaps someone certified in CPTED principles can be located, asked to review the plans for the trail section along the rail line, and develop some alternatives for consideration.

Three hundred thousand dollars for trail development is nothing to sneeze at in any municipality. For Orangeville it is probably the largest single amount to be spent on trial development in the last ten or more years, and perhaps for the foreseeable future. To jeopardize over $200,000.00 in Federal and Provincial financing for the sake of an issue that could be resolvable with some extra thought is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. For the sake of the long term integrity and sustainability of our Town let’s not do that just yet. For today let’s pretend Orangeville Council is the equivalent of the Canadian Senate and give this some sober second thought before making the final decision.

Graham Burke

Orangeville