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GLEN WALTER – South Glengarry Deputy Mayor Frank Prevost is concerned the township could be liable for an accident outside a hastily-made waterfront park.
The green space is on the south side of County Road 2 in Glen Walter and has a couple of picnic tables. It’s been a long-held piece of municipal land though never officially deemed to be a park.
Over the Civic Holiday weekend, special South Glengarry “Waterfront Park” signs went up, described by some councillors as very “inviting.”
The safety issue came to light Saturday (Aug. 19) as traffic was “coming from every angle,” Prevost said, who was travelling in the area to take his daughter to work.
He said a Quebec trailer was parked on the south side of the road at the exit of the sharp curve, completely blocking the bike lane and the eastbound traffic’s line of sight to oncoming traffic.
Prevost estimates they were there “probably four hours,” having a barbecue and a picnic.
There are no “no parking” signs in front of the park.
“You come around that corner you couldn’t see the traffic coming the other way. So, if a bicycle was trying to get around him, it’s either you stop (or possibly collide with oncoming traffic),” Prevost explained.
“We need to get them (park visitors) off the road. We need to get them off the bike path,” Prevost added.
Prevost suggested some sort of gravel roadway to get vehicles off the county road.
“To me this occurred too quickly without thinking about all this stuff. We’re going to cause an accident here and that lady’s going to be coming back in regards to liability,” Prevost said, referring to the township’s insurance agent who made a presentation earlier Monday night.
Prevost couldn’t recall the issue ever being passed by council nor a plan made for the property. “I think we jumped the gun again. If this continues we are going to cause a major accident there.”
“This is crazy. Nonsense. We gotta fix this,” Coun. Bill McKenzie added.
The deputy mayor also said residents had wanted to make a delegation to council before a decision was made by the municipality on the Glen Walter park.
Council did not take any formal action at Monday’s meeting. A report is supposed to come back to the next council meeting on Sept. 5. While there was a suggestion that “no parking” signs go up in the interim, as of Wednesday afternoon, there were no signs along the park on County Road 2.
