I’ve been walking past the spot every day for over four years and I first identified it as a splash hazard for walkers on a rainy day.
No big surprise there since walking along Veteran’s Memorial Boulevard is a splash hazard generally, although most of that hazard exists across the boulevard in front of the Fairgrounds, as opposed to this one located along the fence line of Queen Elizabeth Public School. The one in front of the Fairgrounds is significant and runs continuously for maybe twenty yards or so. If you keep your wits about you while walking on that side of the road, you can navigate the hazard without getting drenched, although there is the occasional need for a bit of a sprint to get ahead of traffic approaching from the Hall/Raglan intersection.
The one in front of QEPS is more sharp, smaller in area than its cousin across the street, but definitely more of a jarring experience for motorists as it makes up for its lack of size with some depth. Currently, the Town of Renfrew employs all manner of tools and practices to manage this “bump,” which is actually more of a short, sharp depression. Nevertheless, as I walked, and as I drove, I noticed that motorists familiar with its presence would employ strategies of their own, chief among them swinging precipitously into the other lane, other motorists be damned.
As I said, Renfrew does all it can to mitigate this nuisance, or perhaps more accurately, it does all that it can without actually doing what needs to be done to settle the blasted thing once and for all. Nothing like a shovel-full of hot mix to solve most of the world’s problems.
Remember that Structured Town Hall, the one where fully eight members of the community attended two sessions? Well, among those eight was a gentleman who took the microphone and wanted to know what was going on, if anything, with this perpetual divit in the roadway.
His questions and commentary were taken up by Councillors, primarily John McDonald, who asked Andrea Bishop, the town’s Director of Infrastructure, Public Works, and Engineering what was happening over in front of Queen E, and further, what could be done about it.
I believe the director mentioned the presence of some pre-existing concrete under the surface of the roadway that was the culprit, as its presence undermined the structural integrity of the roadway due to the natural cycle of heaving and contracting that’s part of seasonal transitions. A fair question might be to ask what the heck a large chunk of concrete is doing underneath that roadway in the first place? Yet before anyone thinks of asking, they might want to remind themselves that they live in Renfrew, Ontario, where all manner of things can be found under the surface, like fuel tanks, washers and dryers (kidding, I think?) and pockets of Japanese soldiers unaware that World War 2 ended eighty years ago. Also, and this is a bit of a stretch, but Jimmy Hoffa is still missing.
Apparently God and his entire legion of saints couldn’t fix this hole without the expenditure of countless dollars, but I don’t see why that has to be an impediment, because that’s how we approach a lot of things in Renfrew, throwing bags of extra cash at things and hoping nobody notices or asks questions. I mean, it’s kind of our thing.
Council wanted to know if the town owned a “grinder,” one of those unfortunate words that has had its original meaning co-opted by the evolution of human sexuality.
Ms. Bishop responded that we do, in fact, own such a piece of equipment, but the thing is we don’t have the “manpower” to take the thing out for a spin, or a grind if you will, over at Queen Elizabeth. In fairness to the director, I think she was attempting to indicate that we did, indeed, have the manpower, but that it had been dedicated toward any number of other myriad problems within the town’s borders that require attention yesterday. Who knows? Maybe operating the grinder is something our municipal workforce is keen on avoiding, for fear of being labelled a grinder operator, or maybe even worse, simply a grinder.
Be that as it may, something profound happened this morning (Thursday) as I was walking past. I saw manpower ( including a female manpower person ) and trucks and equipment, maybe even a grinder, although I have to confess I have no idea what that machine may actually look like.
No matter, there they all were, maybe five in total, with two trucks, a yellow piece of machinery I can only surmise is the grinder, some saw-horses, and a new detour to move traffic away from whatever was going to take place at The Bump. A detour that essentially took highway traffic and routed it in front of a school entrance and exit zone.
Nobody was asking for perfection, and the boys and girl didn’t disappoint.
This is terrific news, though, and speaks somewhat to the resolve of the director to take commentary from the other night and put in place some plan of action, although I can’t tell you how permanent this solution might be. We might be able to throw a grind into that submerged concrete, but the best solution is to go down there and dig it up, and there was no way I could see that happening with the team and weapons assembled.
Nevertheless, it still strikes me as a positive reaction from the director, indicating responsiveness and a certain nimbleness of action.
On top of this, yesterday (Wednesday) I was about town and noticed what appeared to be a dust cloud roughly in the area behind the Post Office, on Plaunt Street. I took a peak in that direction while driving down Renfrew Avenue and saw more manpower and flashes of equipment that was yellow in colour, the same as the thing in front of Queen E this morning. Was this more grinding at work? I’ll have to admit I’m not as familiar with this particular roadway imperfection, but I have heard Plaunt mentioned before, so maybe this is an example of Director Bishop marshalling her forces and throwing them into the fray the very next day after that Structured Town Hall. If so, there needs to be points awarded for this effort, since I’m not all that experienced in rapid responses from the town, let alone any responses from the town. So right there, all by itself, I’m impressed.
That said, if you’re a member of the Infrastructure and Public Works Tactical Squad, you can’t be everywhere at once, which means that it stands to reason that whatever these people were slated to be working on before has now been at least momentarily abandoned as priorities shift in the face of a resident showing up and wanting some answers.
I guess if you live in a part of town where work was being done only to awaken to the sight of saw-horses and traffic cones, you might consider yourself to be living in a part of town that has slid down the priority list.
Pray that grinding is fast work.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 