MOPC meeting with province over Blue Acres sidewalk plans

MOPC staff reported during a recent property services meeting that it has been in contact with Premier Tim Houston’s constituency office in Pictou East and expects to have a meeting in the future with the Nova Scotia Department of Public Works.

The meeting will focus on whether the MOPC needs to include a new bridge in its Blue Acres sidewalk plans.

“We are trying to access the overall project and connecting with the Department of Nova Scotia Public Works,” said MOPC CAO Brian Cullen. “The message delivered to us a few years ago on what was expected from a design standpoint certainly in the last month has been a different message. Now a bridge that was required a few years ago is not a requirement today. We are also looking at some of the options for potentially finding funding programs.”

The MOPC was quoted $66,000 by a company to design sidewalks in Blue Acres that would include a new pedestrian safe bridge, but if the MOPC does not need to include the bridge in its plans, then the cost of the design decreases to about $30,000.

Cullen said the MOPC will be meeting with the Nova Scotia Department of Public Works soon to determine if it is responsible for the bridge or if it will be replaced as part of the province’s bridge replacement program.

“Before we go awarding a contract, we believe we need a clear concurrence from the project that this is what we are going to design,” he said. “If it is just a sidewalk then let’s get that in writing.”

District 11 Coun. Andy Thompson, whose district includes Plymouth, said the issue has sparked a lot of discussions and council needs to move on this quickly.

“I believe that there are reasonable people at the federal and provincial level with influence,” he said. “There are solutions here to make this work.”

District 7 Coun. David Parker said he would still like to see a survey done of the pedestrians who use the area. He believes such information would also be useful when the MOPC applies for funding from other levels of government.

Staff said a survey has been discussed and more information will be brought to the council once staff meets with the province.