Members of the Mississauga Gold Lake Cottager Road Group would like the Municipality of Trent Lakes to take over maintenance responsibilities for Fire Route 130.
Group representative Jason Bredin told council that the road borders and provides access to the Kawartha Highlands Signature Park (KHSP) and it is extensively used by naturalists, colleges, universities, hunters, trappers and snowmobilers.
This is a public road that is owned by the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), he said.
Bredin said the goal of his presentation was to establish an ongoing dialogue with Trent Lakes on this issue and mentioned he had recently spoken with Public Works Director Evan Grieger.
He said the residents on that road pay $1 million in property taxes to the municipality. There are 142 cottages and residences who each pay $800 a year to maintain the road.
Bredin said the group grades the road, replaces culverts, applies new gravel, plows and conducts engineering studies on the Lou Phillips Bridge.
Twenty families now live on the road full time and that number has been increasing at a rate of five full time residents each year, he said.
He asked council to set up a meeting between the group and council members and staff to discuss the issue.
“How can we improve the road?” Bredin said. “We don’t feel like we are getting a lot of benefit.”
Deputy Mayor Carol Armstrong said that she was not aware that there were roads owned by MNRF and she asked what the arrangements are between the ministry and the municipality.
Grieger said that the roads are on Crown Land and there is no formal road allowance owned by MNRF.
Bredin said that in his discussions with the ministry, he was told that they own the land but Trent Lakes maintains the roads.
Armstrong said that this needs to be clarified.
“We need to get the facts about who owns the roads and over whose land are they going,” she said. “So that we’re all working with the same set of assumptions.”
Armstrong presented two motions. The first was to ask staff to look into this specific situation and to address the questions from the roads group.
Councillor Peter Franzen asked how much money the KHSP contributes to road maintenance and was told none.
“I believe they should be contributing to the road,” he said.
Armstrong’s motion was passed.She then presented a second motion that staff prepare a roads inventory report for council.
“It would be nice to understand our road network,” Armstrong said.”I’m not looking for a high level of detail but just the top level to give me the landscape.”
The level of detail in the study can be worked out with staff, she added
.Grieger mentioned that the information would be included in the Trent Lakes Roads Need Study and said it will be updated next year.
The second motion was carried.
