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Tree Planting
Project
Neil
Currie
Enough North Kawartha residents have asked about the project to plant trees to shade the sidewalks of the business section of Apsley, which I proposed some time ago, that I feel I should let them know what has, and has not, happened with the project.
Working under the umbrella of the subcommittee on economic development, I set about to gather the information needed to put the project together. I had encouraging discussions with all the authorities and organizations that might be involved – County roads, Ontario Hydro, the Lions Club, Jack Lake Landscaping Products. As well, the Osbornes of Marvel Rapids Golf Club offered their bushland as a source of free trees. I also contacted those in charge of the cubs and scouts as well as the garden group at the school with the hope that each child might be mentored in learning how to select, transplant and care for a tree. All were enthusiastic.
Near the end of this information-gathering phase I wrote a letter to North Kawartha Township to inform them of my progress. To my great surprise and concern I quickly received an angry phone call from one of the authorities with whom I had had a cooperative and encouraging meeting. The caller said that he had received a phone call from the Township office and that he had never agreed to anything at his meeting with me. He denied discussing points that I had raised. Roy Allen Was at The meeting with me. The man was obviously very frightened. He stressed that he didn’t want to be involved in a political dispute. The project “will never happen!” he said.
Soon after that I presented the information package to Council and the project was turned down summarily with only Councillor Barry Rand supporting it. Reeve Whelan suggested, grinning, that I call the man who he, Mr. Whelan, obviously knew had called me and who had angrily denied ever agreeing to the project.
At least one councillor, on being asked by an Apsley group what happened to the project, has replied simply that “there was a problem”. Nothing more. When I asked the Reeve at the all-candidates meeting what this problem was, he made some comments that I would like to reply to.
He said that the public had never been approached about planting on private property – as though that would stop the project...? Nonsense. The project was (and still is) to plant on the edge of the shoulders of the road. The suggestion regarding offering plantings to private property owners was (still is) a way that the Lions might, should they choose, raise money for their purposes. The cost of the project itself would be nil.
The Reeve also claimed that county roads authorities had never agreed to the project. They had – before they received the phone call from the Township.
The Reeve also said that the Lions had never agreed to provide volunteers for the project. They were never asked. It would have to be Council that would ask. The Lions have understandably said that they would not take the lead in the project. Of course not. The Township would obviously have to take the lead.
I have counted 98 spots along Burleigh and Wellington streets where trees could be planted to provide cooling shade and I have offered to plant five of them myself. This project would help businesses as visitors and cottagers would be comfortable in the cool shade and would stay and browse the smaller stores. It would also beautify the village.
I also suggested that it would make sense to start planning for backlot parking as the IGA had had the foresight to do and as other towns have done.
Reeve Whelan
showed his firm obstruction to the project when he emphatically declared at
the all-candidates meeting that the tree-planting project was “a dead issue!”
- just as he had also tried to prevent the construction of a group
therapy/multi purpose room in the medical centre. It is far from a dead issue
but it seems that North Kawartha residents will have to wait until more
cooperative times to get it.