The spring melt is full of surprises. As the snow recedes, six months of dust, sand and debris gradually sinks to the boulevards and lawns of the community. Our streets and sidewalks that have harboured ice throughout the winter suddenly return with all their imperfections erasing the packed snow that covered them for almost six months.
I again walk from my home to the Harbourage Restaurant almost daily and some of the sixty and seventy year old sidewalks have completely disintegrated. The bright fluorescent paint that will mark the imperfections has long disappeared and many of those blocks should just be painted totally orange.
Second street is like a roller coaster. All the water and sewer cuts for repairs have sunk and vehicles tend to bump along once they reach the 500 block through to the river. Many other streets and sidewalks throughout Fort Frances are in similar states of disrepair. A great many have now reached beyond their expected life expectancy.
Roads, sidewalks, sewer and water do not get voters excited. The community just expects to see everything in first class shape often forgetting that their maintenance and replacement requires a great deal of funding by its residents. Along with the disappearance of the snow was council’s final decision on this years taxes.
It falls in line with the cost of living and inflation, but does little to cover the neglect of streets and sidewalks. Taxpayers are grumbling at the increase, but just maintaining programs, parks, facilities, protection and social services eats up the majority of the town’s funds.
Visitors to our community notice the shape of our streets as they drive about. They pick up on the broken curbs and sidewalk problems. Often they are left feeling that the community is not concerned with the way it looks. Our parks and cemeteries are beautiful. Other parts of the community not so.
With the closure of the mill and the shuttering of businesses, the tax burden has shifted to the shoulders of homeowners. Fixing those sidewalks and roads in the community will be costly and the only way to make that happen is to again ask the homeowners fronting the sidewalks and streets is to bear the costs of their replacement, just as they would for the sewer or water line that connects their home to town services. At one time, the town used the provision of local improvement taxes to make those sidewalk repairs.
It was not popular, but we now see that failing to replace those sidewalks make the task even bigger.
As a “Safe Community” safe sidewalks and safe roads should be a priority. Can those items be again put on council’s agenda for the future?
